The Festixmaskkah Hedgehog

It's been an interesting week. Busy too. Good and bad, mostly good with just a hint of annoying. The annoying isn't even worth mentioning, really. But there have been some really fun highlights!

Last Thursday I went with Ashley and her kids to a local paint your own pottery place called Art Attack. Those who already know that not only do I have a degree in sculpture but I used to teach pottery classes at a small local studio when I was in high school not to mention poured and glazed tiles for a tile artist in Santa Fe will no doubt find the idea of me actually buying an item already in bisque form then painting it to be freakin hi-larious.

Believe me, I did too! To be honest I consider it cheating but it's not like we were there to create high art or try to sell it or something. Ashley just wanted her kids to paint some mugs for their grandparents' xmaskkah gifts. I couldn't resist joining in the fun though. It had been a long time since I'd glazed pottery. So I made a little present for Cody. It's nothing big but I think he'll like it. (Side One) (Side Two)

We enjoyed the whole experience, and the cheap prices, so much that we're going to go again this week! And there's a monthly "Ladies' Night Out on every first friday of the month. Totally think all the snb people should go.

Then on Saturday we took Winter for her annual photo with Santa at Petsmart. She's had one every year since she was a puppy so we had to go. Even though it made me a little sad that Zola wouldn't be in the pictures this year. The Santa photo people remembered us and asked about the hedgehog. It's always hard to tell people about her cancer but it's also always nice to hear when they remember her.

The Second Mrs. deWinter wore her red sweater, a matching leash, and a pink faux silk collar from San Francisco to the occasion. I was dressed like someone who would be wrestling a giant dog so she'd sit still next to a stranger. You can imagine what that looks like.

I've been moving my workroom stuff from the living room into the fourth bedroom (aka The Scary Room). (God I need to really work on getting that scary room organized). We finally got to break out the prelit tree we bought three years ago in a post Xmas sale. I was in Birmingham the last two xmases so it just wasn't worth it to break the big one out. So yay it works! And it's not too tall! This prelit tree thing is great! I know, I can hear the purists out there: blah blah tacky fake tree blah blah lighting is the fun part blah fffft. We can't have a real tree. It would kill Mr. Man. And I think having to untangle and restring lights one more time might kill him too. So for the safety, peace, and general good of our household we got the big fake prestrung tree. So there.

Now to clean the house for my parents' arrival in one week from today (it's not panic attack-inducing bad though which is kind of nice), wrap some presents, knit Jocelyn's grandmother's shawl (Sorry about that Joce!), and hang all the ornaments. The big aunts' annual ornament party is on Friday! Busy week indeed.

Scary-Adorable

I'm not very good with kids. I think they're cute and stuff they just make me very self-conscious. Especially babies. I am totally not one of those women who wants to pick up babies and hold them and fawn all over them. I'm afraid I'll drop them or make them cry, which they usually do because I'm holding them so tight out of fear of dropping them. Most people in my extended family have accepted this about me and have stopped trying to put babies in my arms to try to kick start my biological clock. I think this all probably comes from being the baby in the family. I never had to deal with a younger sibling and my older sibling is several years older than me so she was well out her diapers by the time I was around, or so I hear ;)

I do have that crazy "oh my god isn't she CUUUTE" kind of behavior with animals. Cats, kittens, dogs, puppies, little pocket pets, even a reptile or two. I don't feel the urge to reproduce humans, instead I get the urge to adopt another animal.

It seems like I have been doing a lot of baby knitting lately because I swear one in every fourth or fifth woman I know is pregnant. And what kind of knitter would I be to not knit baby stuff for them? So here's my latest baby knitting. From Ann Budd's Better Than Booties Pattern from Interweave Summer 2005 This one is for a co-worker of Cody's who just had a baby girl. I also wanted to get extra practice in with the reverse yarn over short rows on the heels and toes, which I'm STILL having to be careful with for some very frustrating reason. And I wanted some playtime with braided cables. Which are totally fun to do.

They're cute. And easy to do These are in some kind of Bernat pink acrylic I had lying around. Yeah I know. Gasp! Acrylic! But this stuff is pretty soft and I really think it's just mean to knit baby stuff as a gift with yarn that isn't washable, at least for non-knitter parents.

So that's the second pattern I've knit from that baby gift article from Interweave Summer 2005 and they've both worked out really well. I plan to do the koigu sachet sometime. Now onto the other baby knitting. I finally have the yarn to finish the old baby hunter's cap to go with the ugg baby booties, some pieces to knit for a group blanket, and just started a pinwheel blanket, both of those blankets will be in unbelievably soft cotton. Babies babies everywhere.

As for my baby, I finally uploaded pics from Winter eating her birthday cake. The cake is from three dog bakery which I'd never been to. I'd tried to go once before but they were closed. The cakes are frozen so we don't have to order in advance, we chose the cake, they put the decoration on top for us and we waited for it to thaw.

We cut a piece for her and she waited patiently for me to get a photo and tell her it was ok to eat it.

Isn't our retro carpet great? Ok not so much but we certainly don't get upset when she gets crumbs on it! I got that collar for her in San Francisco isn't it cute?

I'm still working on the yarn sets! That's taking a lot more time than I thought it would!

Happy Birthday Sunshine

Winter is five years old today.

9-15-2001

9-15-2001

11-01-2001

11-01-2001

11-01-2001

So far she has celebrated her special day by having breakfast, playing with her kong toy, and taking a nap. She won't get her cake until tomorrow because Cody had to work last night.

Don't look at me like I'm crazy a lot of people celebrate their dogs' birthdays!

No mom donwanna go to bed

No mom donwanna go to bed

Winter was cozy last night

Winter was cozy last night

All's Well!

I haven't posted in a while and usually that's a bad sign but I'm actually feeling better physically and mentally this week than I have in a long time. I think we may have found the perfect medicinal cocktail now. I'm very excited about this. The shorter hair seems to help as well. Easier to care for, less tangles, less heat on my neck.

And I actually have several surprise projects in the works. And, get this, none of these particular projects are knit or spun (by me anyway). A few involve crafts in general, one involves yarn specifically, one involves photography and crafting of a sort, and another one involves..well, no real way to describe that one so I'll let you wonder about it for a while. They'll all be revealed in time.

In other non-surprise project news we went and did serious grocery shopping at Trader Joe's now that Cody wasn't afraid of the potential hippiecrit prices (to be honest I don't blame him our bills in a normal grocery store can be pretty outrageous) but we did well! Several new things to try, several re-purchases of things we liked from last time. And while we still have to go to the regular grocery store for a *few* things the bill at TJ's was WELL under our usual grocery bill. So we're both pretty happy about that.

And the cats seemed to like the non fish flavored cat food tins. I don't recommend the tuna for cats it doesn't have a pop lid and that annoyed me I don't open the cat food in the kitchen I open it in the kitty bathroom dammit I don't have any can openers in there. So we're going to try a small bag of the dry cat food and see how they like it. They're very picky about their dry food. In this case picky means they only eat crap Science Diet that I put out as a last resort. But the dog, who will eat any dry food I put out, and loves eating the cats' poop when she sneaks into the laundry room, likes the dry dog food. Which wasn't really a surprise. The question was whether or not I'd approve of the food for her. And I do! No corn, first ingredient is not a meat meal or bi-product so I approve.

Ok, it's been a fairly long day. Before Trader Joe's I did some work on a really cool project (my Albuquerque knitter friends will LOVE this) and we had a visit to Scout's house since she lives near TJ's. So I got to meet Supergirl, Superboy, Superhusband, AND Superdog! Her house was unbelievably clean and organized (would you expect any less) and the kids were so sweet. Let me say, those Superkids are WAY cuter in person. My friend has a great little family there and I can't wait to visit again sometime. I'd invite them here but..I'm afraid the house would scare the children.

t's been warm which is nice but the angle of the sun is brutal on the house this time of year until we get the energy to go on the roof to get the swamp cooler working. So even with the windows open and the fans on the house doesn't cool down until late at night.

Not a lot of knitting going on. Still working on the same old projects. Still need to ply that pretty green yarn.

Oh! And you have about fifteen minutes to go wish Cari a Happy Birthday before she turns into a birthday pumpkin. I don't remember how old she is today but this girl totally kicks ass. She knits and snowboards. Not at the same time of course. And likes Upstairs Downstairs! Paisana!

Slow connections beware

Lots of photos. Lots.

First we have my third installment of Yarn Stash Appreciation Sunday. This week? Amazing handspun yarn (usually) bought from the artists themselves.

There are closeup photos in the Flickr Set so I'll just briefly tell you about each yarn. Clockwise starting from the top left: Two hanks Raspberry Tea by Maisy Day from Hello Yarn, Three different yarns (Pink thick and thin, blue thin, Santa Fe Rainbow thick and thin) from Sandstone Ranch.
Bottom Row from the right: Three big skeins of yarn (two green, one pink) from the Jitterbug shawl kit from Hello Yarn, in the bottom left corner are three skeins of lovely wool and silk from Greenwood Fiberworks, and above that is the unbelievable light sensitive yarn from Material Whirled.

Aren't they beautiful? I highly recommend each and every one of those spinners. And yes, there seems to be an awful lot of pink there. This wasn't exactly done on poipose but I certainly don't think it hoits.

Next, I finished the little collar project for Winter. I ended up just sewing the fabric inside and not making it a collar cover - just a collar itself. We never use her collar for the leash anyway, we always use a halter for that.

It's soft and it fits her nicely.

Oh, and here's something else I finished last night..

Yep! Finished my Jaywalkers! I even sewed the ends in. Go me!

Even though I made them a good bit taller than the original pattern, I still only used one skein of that Cherry Tree Hill Birches. Less than a yard to spare but just one skein. Which means I can make another pair of socks in this fun color.

Now, there's this backyard meme going around but to be honest. You really don't want to see my backyard. It used to have trees (that had to be cut down due to a fungus or something), and it had a big yard of grass with built-in sprinklers. But we both believe that having a yard is both a pain in the ass and completely an irresponsible thing to do in the desert so now it's mostly dirt with weeds and a lot of dog poop. So I'm going to show the parts of my backyard that I like.

This gargoyle that guards our back door.

Our only remaining full-sized tree

And this.

No, not the arroyo drainage construction that's been going on behind our house since last May. Nor the gross red wooden fence. But my little desert savannah camoflage dog.

Of course she makes the den pretty fun too

If you're curious about what the rest of the house looks like (with a few changes since this was made in early 2002) check out my eerily accurate Sims recreation of our house.

FO Friday Pumkin Patch Shawl

Technically it's not Friday but I'm a rebel...Here are some photos of the finished shawl. Still not blocked but I know you won't mind.

I can't properly describe how much I enjoyed knitting this. Or really how much I enjoy knitting with anything I buy from Adrian's shop. Her sense of color and great visual sense of using simple patterns to enhance the beauty of her (and Sarah's) handspun yarn is unsurpassed. I don't say that lightly either. I may be a new knitter but I've been studying color all my life. And I always find something truly desirable to knit with in her shop updates. You might notice that I had this knitting project interrupted for a few months. But you might also notice that I bought another kit in the meantime. The prices might seem a bit high if you're unfamiliar with the usual cost of handspun yarn - but it's important to consider how much wool is actually being used in the thicker yarns. Believe me, if you love unique and soft yarn it's totally worth it.

Cody said that I haven't taken enough photos of Winter with my knitting lately. So here's a gratuitous dog being tortured by knitting photo.

Don't let that hounddog face fool you. She loves the attention. And she was happily eating a greenie about three minutes after this photo was taken.

I started my besotted scarf but things got a little sloppy. So to get back into the practice of knitting cables I've been knitting a collar for Winter. Regular collars tend to rub on her short fur so I've been making one that can cover a new one. The idea is based on this necklace and I'm using some old mercerized cotton that I bought at a local store where 80s yarn went to die, or be bought for a dollar a skein by a newbie knitter.

It's knit on US size 4s and will be sewn into a tube using some fabric on the back then slipped onto a collar.

Technically since it's pink it fits into Project Spectrum right?

And isn't it sad that we've recently lost both The Old Man from A Christmas Story (as well as Kolchak The Night Stalker) and The Artful Dodger from Oliver (also in that terrifying show HR Puffinstuff)? What great guys they were.

back to knitting

It took me a few days to feel like knitting again. I would pick a project up sometimes and absentmindedly do a few rows but my heart wasn't in it. I was mostly eating spicy mashed potatoes from Popeyes and watching Tivo. We all have our ways of coping right? The good part is I did get a little housecleaning done. And lots of cuddles from the kitties and Winter. It's funny to say this but they knew something was up with Mom and were all trying to comfort me in their own ways.

Yesterday I officially got back into the knitting groove. While I haven't finished my second Jaywalker sock (almost to the heel) I decided to just pick up my UFOlympic Clappy and see how the rhythm went on working with it again. I hadn't knit a stitch on that thing since September? October? A long time in my knitting world.

I had Tivoed the opening ceremonies so I was a good little UFOlympic knitalonger and started working on le clap while watching almost four hours of pyrotechnics and people in silly outfits. That's probably disrespectful but I had a very hard time not giggling at such odd and melodramatic spectacles as people on ice skates with big flamethowers on their backs shooting fire off the tops of their heads. It was like a weird version of Starlight Express, which is plenty wierd by itself.

The people who formed images like the skiier and the dove were neat though. And, of course, Pavarotti singing Puccini., well I could've watched that all night. I'm enjoying all the footage of Italy as well. I never got that far north when I was there but I did see some snow in Venice. Strangely I have not caught much of the actual sports. Like a complete girl I like the figure skating and that's about it.

But tonight and tomorrow night, I'm sorry but olympics be damned. Westminster's on and that's what I'm watching! I've enjoyed watching it since 1991 when I had a week to decide whether I wanted to stay in Birmingham and go to school or move to Australia with my parents. Even when I didn't have a purebreed dog, nor any real interest to own one, I've watched it. Now that I have a ridgeback that's had a few cousins win best of breed (one even won best of hounds!) you bet your bippy I'm watching. So me and my clap will be doing that this evening. Winter will probably watch a bit too before taking a nap. She watches the screen when I'm watching shows with dogs on them.

As far as progress on clappypants I'm doing pretty well. I'm on my third skein of six and I just finished repeat number five of twelve in the straight section. So I'm about halfway. At this rate I'll be finishing it this week and have time to finish my Jays before the closing ceremony (which will probably be just as elaborate and fiery but I will try to refrain from giggling).

I haven't taken any photos in a few weeks so I don't have images of the superlong airy scarf I knit for my mil or the oddball fuzzyfeet I'm working on for Cody. Or progress on clapster. I'll get some today before I get any work done.

I did officially sign up for Project Spectrum yesterday and just for fun made a few buttons for it, mostly because I hadn't seen any designs with a color wheel and I thought that would be neat. Feel free to take them.

I don't mind hotlinking from my site (I have a very generous host and lots of space I even survived being boingboinged with an audio file and didn't even make a dent in my bandwidth) so if you don't have a lot of space or have trouble working with graphics you offically have my permission to hotlink these buttons. Just these buttons. And just hotlinking from my site my site mmkay? I made different sizes for each too.

Broadway Marquee Style


Painterly Colorwheels




Partdridge Family Bus



Some medication trademark image-looking design with a colorwheel

Enjoy!

Cough

So I feel a bit better but sound a lot worse. This seems to be part of the healing process so fine, I guess I'll deal with it. I took a hyper cleansing shower and steambath yesterday and went out last night anyway.

While I was starting this

with these ladies at Flying Star

(more photos here and here)

the dog did this

and now has a belly full of 16 large greenies.

That's 32 ounces. A month's supply.

Eek!

So today between letting the dog outside and back in every few minutes I have been doing more work on this

and wearing these

Happy Birthday Little stink

WindyRidge's Second Mrs deWinter (Winter)

Born: August 27, 2001
Sire: CH. Wyndrunhr Red Hot Chili (Red Dawg)
Dam: CH. Ridgeview's Kaotic Tempest JC CGC TDI (Kaos)
Breeder: Windy Ridge (Kristine Weaver and Jeff Hayes)

go see many baby ridgeback pics

Go wish Zuzu a happy birthday via both her human parents as well!

Skulls or Stripes?

Winter's fourth birthday is on Saturday and we were planning on getting her a new collar. I can't decide which one to get though.

Should I get the pink leather with silver skulls that I meant to get her for Xmas?

Or the stripey woven mayan collar from flax?

Red and Green are complementary colors.

So the great two-color dirty blondish foil job I got while I was in B'ham over Christmas is long, long faded and the insidious grey hairs were showing again. I picked up some stuff at the walgreens yesterday and dyed my hair last night. I kept it on for about 40 minutes since I wanted it a little lighter than my natural tone. Going lighter seems to blend with the greys better. The color was called "firelight" and it's pretty auburn-y.

I had the camera on zoom when I was trying to get a shot of my hair so I got some amusing extreme closeup self-portraits. And photos of a silly hat I bought from a cart in the mall Saturday night. Yeah, errands included the semi-annual trip inside Cottonwood to get a bunch of handsoap. I figure if I'm going to be using this stuff upwards of thirty times a day (between pet food handling, gross tinned kipper snack serving, hairball cleaning, and the usual potty breaks it really is about that) I'm going to use a soap that makes me happy.

Phunq was looking very cute on the sofa blanket so I had to get the camera for that. He's an excellent poser (but never a poseur).

Noticing that someone else was getting attention Melon had to put a stop to that meeped at me (well, more like ee-ed at me) until I took photos of her posed on the sofa arm. It was when the photo was loaded into the computer that I saw this photo had supernaturally exposed her true origins.

As you can see from the non-satanic origin exposure photo that the shaved bands on her legs are regrowing her fur nicely. As is the spot on her neck where a huge clot of fur fell out and the places they shaved on her inner thighs. She's still only eating disgusting tinned kipper snack and some Science Diet Sensitive Stomach dry food but seems to still be doing fine.

Mr. Man has definitely fixed the swamp cooler now. It's actually getting cold in the house at night, like where I want to put on clothes and get under a blanket!

Since she's pretty cold natured one of Winter's favorite summertime activities is lying on the floor in the afternoon sun.

The dog bed in the den got too ratty to keep so for now she gets to use a Haring blanket ironically given to me by my in-laws for Christmas one year. Ironic because the in-laws aren't exactly gay friendly folks and they wouldn't know Keith Haring, iconic pop artist who donated a great deal of his art for aids activism and research and who eventually died from aids-related complications in 1990, from a Modligiani. And I'm fairly sure it came from Wal Mart which makes me wonder if this was licensed or an outright ripoff. In any case, Winter likes it because it keeps the carpet from rubbing her elbows.

I realized the other day that she'll be four years old next month and got kind of sad that some senior dog foods say they're for ages five and up. But she's still a puppy!

Who waits very patiently for her greenie in our tacky orange kitchen.

Then eats it in forty-five seconds flat.

What the hell do they put in those things?

Monday Dogblogging

We went to the dog park in Rio Rancho yesterday and took a bunch of photos.

They've just added some nice agility equipment. Winter barely remembers her brief stint of agility lessons.

We were alone for a while (which happens a lot at the RR dog park) but around seven pm the population started to increase.

This is a three month-old chihuahua dachsund mix that I had to pick up and cuddle. These people who bring their tiny puppies to dog parks are SO MEAN.

Especially hound dog puppies.

I'm such a sucker for hound faces with big hound ears.

Also, since Cody and I aren't always on the same sleeping schedule we have a hard time keeping up with when Winter was last fed. Being a ridgeback she's always going to act like she's starving, and the vet's been giving us a hard time about getting her to lose ten pounds. So Cody came up with this solution.

He found a dry-erase board at Jo-Ann when we were there the other day buying more brownish fun-fur to make more hedgehog toys (I've had lots of requests to sell them and I'm pretty sure that's ok since I strayed pretty damn far from the original pattern). It's a neat board with a sparkly magnetic surface. It came with a cool pen with a dry eraser on the cap, a magnetic pen holder, and two little magnets.

Cody also found some cute dog theme stickers and made a little clock so we can write in when we last fed her. And there's room to leave notes and stuff for each other. Our next plan is to add a place to note "am" or "pm" and if the dishes in the dishwasher are clean.

Isn't it cute?

Dogblogging, etc.

So CheekyProf was writing about doing some Monday dogblogging this summer. I'm planning to make it more of a general petblogging thing but thought I'd post a few puppy photos of Winter to get things started. So here she is in her black and white adorableness.

three weeks old on 9-14-2001



three weeks old in Cody's lap



approx nine weeks old, just brought home



around eleven weeks old. growing fast



six months old

I've probably posted them before but they got lost during the great photo journal fileloss mystery.

In other news I went to the Dropped Stitch Knitter's Guild meeting today. I'd met a few members at the Fiber Fiesta and went ahead and joined when I found out they meet just down the mesa from my house. It was a fun group of very nice women who really know what they're doing with this knitting stuff but were very encouraging in their praise of my work so far. I'm the youngest in the group by at least ten years but that didn't matter at all it was all about the knitting. I'm sure they'll be very sweet when I bring in my little punk knitter projects, they LOVED my felted lopi tote bag. I did make the mistake of mentioning that I used to design websites so I've been volunteered as the new webmistress. It's ok it keeps me off the streets right? The great part is they meet Wednesday nights so now I'll get to hit them on the weeks I can't go to the Tuesday knit night group!

In non-dog, non-knitting news I wanted to pimp two sites I enjoyed today...

-this has got to be the most personally apt review I've read of Mr. Lucas' latest. Particularly the parts about Padme looking like she's just slightly bloated rather than pregnant with twins and the complete lack of strange cravings or the ever-present morning sickness. I wonder if Get up Grrl has seen it (wish she'd publish an rss feed dammit).

-ok this is sort of dog-related but I've really been enjoying hatamaran's paintings. No, they're not "high art" but they are adorable, expressive, and she's clearly having a good time making them. Which is just as (if not more) important as backing your shit up with all kinds of high-minded art theory. Believe me, this I know.

Nerd dog mom

I really liked that photo of Winter in "the meadow" and since I haven't changed my desktop image since Meomi uploaded their december desktop calendar I thought this might be a good time to have a new desktop image. So I made sized it to fit my desktop. Once up there i noticed the space on the lower left was kind of weird so I just pasted another photo of her face in there as an overlay.

And what could make the exhibition of my obesessive dog mom-ness more complete than assuming everyone else would want my dog on their desktop too?

1280 x 1024

1024x768

800x600

640x480

Update: I'm also going to upload it to Webshots where they already offer a photo of Winter's Father, Red Hot Chili!

inane! rambling! never updated!

This isn't quite as good as the geek love poem shirt but it captures the general recent mood of the site doesn't it?

Seriously, my life hasn't been that interesting at all. But I guess that's what separates the good weblog writers from the sucky ones - the ability to take a mundane life and make it interesting to random ass online strangers.

The Westminster was fun to watch. Whatever the commenter says about ridgebacks usually throws the rr folk list into a fair tizzy for a few days which is always fun to read. I remember the first year we were thinking about getting one and the commentator guy said something implicating that these were intense, scary dogs to own - which was one of the deciding factors in us deciding to adopt our Catahoula mix breed, ASCII. Who was a wonderful girl but had probably some of the worst set of hip and knee bone joints in veterinary history - having to be put down at approximately three years old because we just couldn't justify the extensive pain and expense for all the surgeries on our sweet girl. Which made us look into breeders who check genetic ailments which led us back to ridgebacks. I don't begrudge the commentator for what he said - but I do listen very carefully to what they say about my favorite breed.

This year they walked a pretty good line between making them sound like good pets but certainly not for the slack dog parent - both completely true. But they just can't help mentioning that lion baiting thing - which Winter finds quite handy when getting bullied by the sixteen year old princess kitty, Kurry.

It's not like they killed the lions - they would get in a pack, annoying the crap out of a lion, dodging the claws, keeping the lion in one place until the hunter would show up with his gun. Brave? yes. Independent? absolutely. But the lion aspect has always been one part of what was mostly an excellent farm and family dog. And while Winter's greatest foes are rainy nights when she needs to go potty, cold tummies, cranky princessy cats, and only getting a Greenie every other day - the characteristics that were important for those farm dogs do show themselves. I wasn't familiar with the ridgie who had taken best of breed this year. I usually expect Woody (who won best of hounds group at Westminster in 2002 and a distant cousin of Winter) or Gatsby (who took second in the hounds at Westminster last year). But I've been a bit out of the loop in the conformation and lure coursing groups the last few years so I have no idea who the big names in ridgeback circles are right now.

We've found a new dog park that's much much closer to our house - like five miles away as opposed to twenty-five. There's gravel which winter doesn't like much so she stays on the edges with natural sand landscaping. But the people and their dogs are nice. And the difference in distances and the roads to get there just don't even compare.

I'm hell-bent on finishing what's officially known as the ugliest scarf in the world but I keep getting distracted with real life crap.

And I've been slack with the photos. So this t shirt really applies doesn't it?

It's The Blog!

Produced by average people who seem to think their lives are interesting. Filmed in thrilling HTML-O-Scope with exciting new fonts!

two good things

Dan Says is selling a calendar with twelve months of photos featuring the second cutest dog I've ever seen. They're twenty-four dollars - ten of those will be matched with another ten dollar match from Dan to go towards the Red Cross International Disaster Relief Fund. For the math is hard barbies out there that means that for every cute dog calendar you buy twenty dollars will be sent to help Tsunami victims. Nice eh? (snagged from Daisy)

Oh and the other good thing is..well, my amusing nyquil dreams. Sometime this morning I dreamt I was in a really seedy bar in Houston helping Edward Norton shop for black leather pants. This was after being a contestant in some horrible 'put people who will undoubtedly hate each other in a confined situation and make them do stupid things while taping it for our entertainment' reality tv competition show which I had escaped (I do NOT share my bathroom with strangers even in my dreams dammit I don't care how cool that bathtub is) and was wandering aimlessly around Houston (where I've never been aside from brief airport layovers) on foot eventually wandering into said seedy leather bar but before imagining an intersection in my hometown as having been a high-traffic market area in the early 1900s (which I assure you it wasn't) and somehow my parents' old yard man, Mr McNeil, was there pulling a cart of trinkets around.

That Edward Norton trying on black leather pants and me getting to assure him that it's much better to buy them a little tight because they're a natural fabric and will stretch eventually part was mighty fun though.

We went to get photos with Santa today. But I'll post those tomorrow. Today I'll show some I took on the way home.

the great escape

Winter's never shown any interest in escaping from the yard. One time the gate was open and I found her on the front porch trying to get in. That was about two years ago. But yesterday she was outside for a long time. And aside from the general quease in my stomach I felt an extra utz in there and knew..just knew that gate had opened and she'd gotten out. But we couldn't really see from the windows if the gate was open and she wasn't answering when we called from the back door. So Cody got dressed and went back there. After about three minutes with no signs of either I got dressed and went out there too. The gate was indeed open so I walked to the front yard and there was Cody and Winter walking up the street. He'd found her down the street sniffing in someone's yard. But he asked if she knew where mommy was (yes, we call each other mom and dad to the dog. stfu) and she headed straight for the house..and there I was. I was happy to see her and am just trying not to think about what could have happened.

All the animals have lived a very sheltered life in our house. No one has ever been mean to them. Ever. The cats lie in the middle of the floor on their backs completely confident that human feet will not step on them. Granted, the dog gets excited and decides to give a cat a chase every once in a while but she makes sure she doesn't catch them it's just for fun and the cats have specially designed escape from the dog places.

So now each of them have had their short adventures into the real world. Even the hedgehog has her "getting behind the sideboard where the hand couldn't get to me" story. And our great two year record without an outdoor escape has been broken. Damn. The gate has been properly latched now. I admit we usually have it slightly rigged but not well latched because the latch is a pain in the ass for service people to open. But they can just suck it up my baby is not escaping again.

I don't want to think about what a stranger would make of her ridge or the fact that she shrugs away from letting strangers touch her on the top of her head - even though she wags her tail and is very friendly strangers are not allowed to touch her on top of her head. Or what she would do if she saw a car coming. Or had gone just fifty or so feet behind the house to that really busy road. This is not helping my stomach.

Cody has decided this is a cold. And now that I have a sore ear and a general achiness he might be right. So I'm being sent to bed frequently with a cup of tea and some alka seltzer cold. I've been half-assed working on a skin for people on dialup but not much is getting accomplished at this rate.

I did get a birthday present for him for next week and a christmas present ordered. So that's good.

memory foam pet bed

Isn't this the cutest little drawing?

I've seen so many simulations of "correct sleeping positions" for human spine and necks to sell pillows and foam pads and whatnot but I just couldn't help thinking how cute it was they did one for doggies. And look at the little droopy ear. I love that.

faith the two-legged dog

Walks on her back two legs and might be in the next Harry Potter movie

a video of her in action

kind of spooky to watch but how amazing is that?

cute!

Dogs in cars

brff brff

Winter barks in her sleep sometimes. And runs too. Right now I can hear her barking while she's asleep in the bedroom with Cody. Brff brff brffbrff. So cute.

Sunday in the dog park with Winter

We'd been planning to do this for days and wonder of wonders we got off our geeky fat asses and did it this morning. First we packed up the dog and had a nice (somewhat chilly) breakfast on the petio at the Flying Star then went to the dog park downtown for about two hours. Winter had a wonderful time. I had to get off the bench and socialize with the other people so she'd play with their dogs. There was one boy, a heeler mix named "I Spy", she wrestled with for a long time. I'd never seen her let anyone play rough with her like that - he would nibble on her neck and ears! And she was loving it. I really would like to have another dog she would have such fun. And I've noticed she's always more comfortable with the medium sized dogs. But we can't handle another dog.

Repeat it with me -- Noelle, you can't handle another dog. Really. You. Can't. Handle. Another. Dog. Especially. Not. A. Beagle.

Don't think about Libby's litter being due on Tuesday. This dog's face is just indescribable the photos really don't do it justice. She has the most extrordinarily delicate face for a ridgeback. But I'm not thinking about how beautiful her babies would be. Nope.

Winter would have serious sibling rivalry issues. We wouldn't have any room left on the bed for us. One word: housebreaking! I think my mother would have an actual conniption fit. We really had planned on waiting until all the pets were gone and getting a puppy and kitten at the same time so they'd be used to each other and hopefully more cuddly together. The vet bills would be even worse than they are now. We have health insurance for the dog - we'd probably get another policy for the other one - more expenses.

We already have a name picked out when the occasion does arise but we've had the idea for years. Winter's name is "Windy Ridge's Second Mrs DeWinter" based on one of my favorite book/movies, Rebecca. We'd planned on naming the next one "Robert Poste's Child" with the call name Flora from another favorite book/movie, Cold Comfort Farm.

But we won't get Flora for a long time. Nope. No cute new beagles for me. But maybe another hedgehog...

Travel with your dog

We have another wedding to go to next month. All I have to do with this one is show up and it's in New Mexico so we're using this as an opportunity to make it a mini vacation and bring the dog. It's up in the four corners area which I've never been to so I'm hoping we can get to the ruins and stuff and get to drive on rt 666 oooh. *sings Patti Smith to herself*

There's a lot involved in travelling with a pet though so planning in advance is really important.

First off I've been researching hotels in the area that allow pets - there are a lot of sites with databases with that info but I find DogFriendly.com has the most comprehensive list.

I called a few places that looked good to double check on their pet policies because they vary wildly. In this case the Best Western (at 85 dollars a night) requires people with pets stay in a smoking room and they charge a 10 dollar non-refundable fee. The Holiday Inn (at a 50 dollar discount rate) charges a 20 dollar non-refundable fee per night and we can't leave her alone in the room - whether she's crated or not. The La Quinta (at 70 bucks per night from expedia) seems to be the most flexible - no fees, no smoking room required, they just ask we clean up any mess she makes. That Best Western is awfully tempting with its free high speed wireless network though. Some places also won't allow dogs over 50 pounds so that's important to check out too.

Ok so we decided on a hotel. Now what to bring. Since we'll have to leave her in the room while we go to the wedding and stuff we're bringing along a soft sided collapsable crate, her favorite fleece blanket, and some toys to keep her busy while we're gone.

Other things to bring
-a bottle of water from the house and a rubbermaid plastic bowl
-a travel bowl and baggies of premeasured food
-poop bags
-a small bottle of cleaner in case of an accident
-a roll of paper towels
-a fresh fast tag with my cellphone number on it
-an extra collar and leash
-a well-stocked first aid kit

She's really used to riding in the car with us - we drive a cr-v with the back seats down and a nice bed in the back for her. We're trying to get her used to her seat belt now that some cities here have been considering changing city ordinances to require pets being restrained in vehicles.

Now I just have to find out where the dog friendly parks are up there.

Despite all the trouble I'm still glad we just have a dog - even though human breeders can take their babies pretty much anywhere. I'm just not a baby person - they kind of scare me. I usually react with googling to puppies and kittens the way others do to babies. So we don't get to claim the pets as dependants but we can always put the dog in her crate and go out for a bit - people tend to call child services when you do that with a toddler. Nonetheless my anti-PETA rant still applies.

Travel with your dog

We have another wedding to go to next month. All I have to do with this one is show up and it's in New Mexico so we're using this as an opportunity to make it a mini vacation and bring the dog. It's up in the four corners area which I've never been to so I'm hoping we can get to the ruins and stuff and get to drive on rt 666 oooh. *sings Patti Smith to herself*

There's a lot involved in travelling with a pet though so planning in advance is really important.

First off I've been researching hotels in the area that allow pets - there are a lot of sites with databases with that info but I find DogFriendly.com has the most comprehensive list.

I called a few places that looked good to double check on their pet policies because they vary wildly. In this case the Best Western (at 85 dollars a night) requires people with pets stay in a smoking room and they charge a 10 dollar non-refundable fee. The Holiday Inn (at a 50 dollar discount rate) charges a 20 dollar non-refundable fee per night and we can't leave her alone in the room - whether she's crated or not. The La Quinta (at 70 bucks per night from expedia) seems to be the most flexible - no fees, no smoking room required, they just ask we clean up any mess she makes. That Best Western is awfully tempting with its free high speed wireless network though. Some places also won't allow dogs over 50 pounds so that's important to check out too.

Ok so we decided on a hotel. Now what to bring. Since we'll have to leave her in the room while we go to the wedding and stuff we're bringing along a soft sided collapsable crate, her favorite fleece blanket, and some toys to keep her busy while we're gone.

Other things to bring
-a bottle of water from the house and a rubbermaid plastic bowl
-a travel bowl and baggies of premeasured food
-poop bags
-a small bottle of cleaner in case of an accident
-a roll of paper towels
-a fresh fast tag with my cellphone number on it
-an extra collar and leash
-a well-stocked first aid kit

She's really used to riding in the car with us - we drive a cr-v with the back seats down and a nice bed in the back for her. We're trying to get her used to her seat belt now that some cities here have been considering changing city ordinances to require pets being restrained in vehicles.

Now I just have to find out where the dog friendly parks are up there.

Despite all the trouble I'm still glad we just have a dog - even though human breeders can take their babies pretty much anywhere. I'm just not a baby person - they kind of scare me. I usually react with googling to puppies and kittens the way others do to babies. So we don't get to claim the pets as dependants but we can always put the dog in her crate and go out for a bit - people tend to call child services when you do that with a toddler. Nonetheless my anti-PETA rant still applies.

dum de dum

Sitting on hold with Tmobile while they figure out why our phones aren't working. Who knows how long that's been going on we never use our cellphones except when Cody has to travel for work. I was smart though I already had the cordless phone's headset on and I've gotten all our other bills paid online while waiting.

I've also gotten all the food ready for the dog's visit to the puppy spa. They don't have the Foster and Smith food and I don't want her to get sick. Also we feed her one cup three times a day as opposed to grazing because she'd just eat it all up in one shot then get sick. So I made up twenty little baggies with 1 cup of dog food each. Put all her supplements and a treat in every third baggie and stapled it together with two plain ones for each day. It costs me a dollar a meal to have them do it this way but it's worth it to keep her healthy. The place she goes to is great. We also pay for supervised doggy day care all day long because she loves other dogs so much and a special frozen yogurt treat once a day. The people that work there genuinely love dogs and cats and they give us a little report card on how she did when we pick her up. She'll have a lot of fun.

So while I'm on hold (yep, still, which is fine with me as long as they fix the problem) I thought I'd type out the supplements we give Winter and what they're for.

Once a day-

1 x 1000 mg tab Vita C Tablets (Ester C formula)
studies have shown that vitamin c can help with general health AND can counteract or prevent hip dysplasia. We're VERY aware of the risks of hip dysplasia in larger dogs (that's a long story) and we started with preventative measures for this and other diseases very early in her life.

1 tablet Brewer's Yeast Mega Tabs
contains omega fatty acids, zinc, vitamin B that are good for skin and coat. I do a lot to prevent her getting dry skin and a dry coat because it is the desert after all.

1 tablet gycoflex II
we started with the plain gycoflex when she was still a puppy. That only contained perna mussel which is thought to help with cartiledge and connective tissues. Now that she's older and a good deal larger we give her this formula which also contains Glucosamine, MSM, and Manganese - all aid with connective tissues, cartiledge, and joints.

1 capsule of Vitacaps for large dogs
high levels of fatty acids and biotins for healthy skin and general health

1 400 iu Vitamin E(general walgreens brand)
helps with skin, heart, also thought to help with eyes to prevent cataracts, some evidence that it helps with the connective tissues and joints

1 tbs Missing Link Veterinary Formula
There are non- Veterinary formulas that are easier to find but they only contain Omega 3. The Veterinary formula has both 3 and 6. Again, benefits skin, fur, and connective tissues.

2 tablets Fresh Breath Tabs
crunchy mint treats with parsley oil to help control the tartar and stinky breath a bit between brushings

Seasonal / Occasional Supplements-

Sometimes when she's craving greens (ie I see her out in the yard eating weeds) I give her a little bowl of water mixed up with 1 tsp Barley Dog.

If she's anxious or we're about to go somewhere that might make her stressed I give her a few ultra calm tabs

I know it seems like a lot but she really is a healthy dog and we'd like to keep her that way as long as we can :) Anyway these pills are like treats for her and I get her to go through different trained commands for each treat so she gets her meds and her training reinforced.

Walking the dog

I'm usually willing to try something new if I think it might make things easier. There are two lesser-known products I bought for Winter on a whim and I'm very glad I did.

Ridgeback in a sporn harness courtesy of In the Company of Dogs.

Can't count how many times I've thanked my lucky stars for trying out the buddy system belt hands free leash or that I opted for that extra 'lunge buster' attachment. The belt and leash are made of a tough nylon weave and clips very easily onto my personal favorite sporn harness. There are even plus sized belts which are totally adjustable. The leash is adjustable as well and there's an extra clip for an additional leash so you can walk with more than one pet. These are great for taking walks and shopping at Petsmart, PetCo, or the Home Depot. You could also clip the belt around a tree or post outside the Starbucks but I haven't been able to bring myself to leaving Winter outside alone. One thing to note- the leash is attatched by a proprietary clip so to use other leashes I guess you could use the hand loop and just thread it onto the belt. It's not sold in a lot of places but I got mine from SitStay.com.

Buddy System
pros- great hands-free shopping with your pet! Plus sizes available. Expandable for more than one pet. Durable materials. Can use for temporary tethering at the local coffeeshop. Love that shock absorber attachment!
cons- kind of expensive for a leash, proprietary clip attachments, not a lot of places carry them.

Sporn Harness
pros- comfortable harness with very little wear on pet's coat compared to most collars and harnesses. Added safety of a harness rather than just a collar. Unusual design. Easily adjustable. Goes really well with the buddy system.
cons- winter has managed to dig in her heels and have this harness slide right over her head while I keep going forward but as long as you keep them in front of you it works fine. some people have taken it for a 'special needs' harness. a little rub in the back area. I added an extra fleece sleeve on each arm to add padding but Winter has very thin fur. there was hair loss on her shoulders from a combination of the harness and a drop flea treatment like frontline. We no longer use spot flea treatments like that. Kind of confusing to put on at first but it gets easier eventually and you can even train your dog to give you "this paw" then "that paw".