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It's not quite yet Thanksgiving week, but I am very grateful right now. Sometimes, life's mercies come in boxes shaped like elderly, vicious cocker spaniels, and I appreciate them when they do. I'm sitting on the floor, flanked by perfect, sweet Duncan on one side, and Felix, whom you all know, on the other. I want to squeeze them tightly, and I can do that with Duncan, and with Felix, well, I have to squeeze him with words and gentle scratchings of the ear.
Not everyone, not even everyone who is willing, is in a position to keep a dog who has become vicious (or perhaps has always been vicious). There's personal physical risk, there's one's sanity, there are the risks to the safely and mental health of loved ones and others, and there's often a fair bit of money involved (though, thankfully, Prozac is cheap). Of course forget about it if there are children around. All these years, I have somehow managed to keep Felix. My family didn't really tolerate him, but they didn't kill him. My boyfriend cum fiance cum husband, who claims to hate him, and often does, I think, hasn't been eager to keep Felix and take a huge part in his care, but he's done it, and he's done it very graciously, really. Felix has bitten us, especially me, but it's never been serious, even the one time when it looked like he'd gotten me in the eye, and I had blood pouring down my face. We've somehow managed the huge outlay of veterinary expense (admittedly, most of it for things other than his mental condition), with ingenuity, sacrifice, and the support of parents we're fortunate to have. I keep saying Felix isn't long for this world, and I really don't think he is, but he has fooled me every time I've started to say good-bye, so I don't predict anything anymore. I've had him seven years, and I'll have him until he stops enjoying life, and barring tragedy, no one will take him from me.
My sister is on her way to the vet right now to have her dog Billy put to sleep pretty much exactly a year after rescuing him. He's always had behavioral issues, but lately he's gotten more and more vicious. He attacked a dog on a walk the other day. He got in a brutal fight with the foster dog at the dog park today. Yesterday, he guarded the couch against my mom, and she felt that he came very close to attacking her and was really scared. There have been other things, too. My sister is a dog trainer, and they've also had him on psychiatric medication and sedatives, and it's only gotten worse. It's really horrible, because he's a sweet dog most of the time - happy and full of love and life. I hate like hell that there's apparently no solution. If it were me... I don't know. I guess I would want to try to keep him still, but some of the things he's been doing are more dangerous than Felix, and he's also a hell of a lot bigger. It's just really sad. I'm very sorry I won't get to play with him one last time.
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So I think we have like $30 to get us through to Tuesday, and I was totally planning to make chili tonight, but I feel like Hell warmed over, and the kitchen is a mess, and I'm drawn to evil temptations.
To wit, I just learned on the intertubes that Ben's Chili Bowl is open until 2 AM. 2 AM. The husband, who had not updated me in a very long time about his leaving time from work, just informed me that he would be leaving in 15 minutes. That could put us pulling up to Ben's at like 10:15.
Dare one eat chili at 10:15? It would be so wrong, and yet, potentially, so very, very right.
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Via Hello Kitty Hell, which is an amazingly entertaining blog, if only because one follows the trials and tribulations of a man whose wife became a fanatical Hello Kitty fan and collector after they got married. And to think some people believe in a kind and loving god, who loves everyone!
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This AM we saw a guy on an old school motor bike sort of thing (sorry, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) firynze, I know I'm using totally wrong terminology!), and he was wearing an orange helmet that had the number 44 on the side. Does anyone know what that refers to? It had the look of something that was a reference cool people would get.
I was looking on Google for it just now, and I found this helmet, which is completely badass and I would totally covet it if I had any use whatsoever for a helmet:
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This is kind of funny. When we had only been dating about a year and a half, he was spending the night one night, and I had a dream that we were living together and Penelope Cruz came to the door and said she wanted him to go away with her, and he did. I woke up and told him this story, and he said, "Well, no offense, but if Penelope Cruz comes for me, I have to go!" Yeah, wrong thing to say, buddy. This is, what, 6 years later, and I still tease him about it, and when I see Penelope Cruz on something, and he's with me, I'll hiss something about, "Husband-stealing hussy!"
It's funny, and yet, to be honest, I do actually have a tiny bit of actual resentment towards her, just out of habit, I guess.
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| » Diatribe # 347: Little girls in French maid costumes |
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This evening we returned from apple picking in Western Maryland and took our dogs for a walk in the usual neighborhood. We arrived just as trick-or-treating was warming up. There was a pair of little girls, sisters, I think, going house to house, with a parent driving along the street slowly behind them. One was dressed as Dorothy, it looked like. The other, a little girl of 7-9 years of age, was dressed as a French maid.
A French maid. Really? It was your classic cheap French maid outfit, with the teeny tiny black skirt, except that, as a concession to her youth, the company had fitted the garment with a white knee-length skirt under the sexy one. No, the black one was not an apron. I scrutinized it. There was a tiny white apron over it.
So which is worse? That a very young girl was wearing a costume that is quite possibly the epitome of classic American (other cultures too?) sexual cosplay? Or that the little girl wearing the maid costume was black? (I mean, it wasn't a Mammy costume, but still!) My husband thinks I'm going overboard in my diatribe about option 1, and embraces option two as being "kind of wrong."
Am I being totally melodramatic about this? Is that not horrifying?
Oct. 31st, 2009 @ 07:38 pm
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| » That's MRS Revolutiongrrl to you! |
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Oh yeah, by the way, y'all....
I got married!
Details coming. I just suddenly was struck by the need to reconnect to my eljay crew, so I had to log on right now to tell you the news.
I can't believe I haven't posted since July! I've missed you. Will you give me the Cliff's Notes on your news, so I can try to catch up?
Oct. 25th, 2009 @ 08:51 pm
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| » Crucial data needed |
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Who is your favorite character on Arrested Development?
We've been marathon watching the show recently, and our thoughts have evolved over the course of the show, but I think mine is Gob.
Also, I made my first sale of something I made on etsy this week!! I had sold a vintage thing and a couple of bead supply things, but these are earrings I made. Mighty, as they say, is my w00t.
Jul. 16th, 2009 @ 01:27 pm
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| » Darla As God |
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Jul. 16th, 2009 @ 01:26 pm
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| » good news following the bad news I haven't told you yet |
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See, by being slack lately, I have spared you stress and sleeplessness. Had I been posting regularly, you would have known that just over a week ago, I picked L up from work and he announced that effective the next day, his hours had been cut to 20 per week. This seemed fairly disastrous, though the drugs combined with my epic skill in denial mostly kept me from actually feeling the weight of the disaster it was. We talked about how he needed to get a new job all week, but somehow never got around to looking.
Sunday, we were about to leave for gaming when the phone rang. It was a buddy of his from the last job, the one that went bankrupt. He said that their former manager had been trying to reach L, because he was at a new company and wanted to give L a job. Apparently he had already called the buddy himself and one other guy from their original crew to offer jobs. This was Sunday.
L went for the formal interview yesterday afternoon after work. It was short. It went well except for one sort of big question he couldn't answer. He felt certain he'd ruined it. I did not worry.
This morning at work, he got an email from the manager asking for his street address, so they could put it on the formal job offer letter they were writing. He would start tomorrow, except that he's feeling fluish, and told them he'd have to start Thursday.
Both good and bad: I coached him on negotiating, and gave him an exact number to start with and a rock bottom number to try to stick to. The owner, with whom he had the interview, didn't even flinch at the start number. That's what he's going to get paid. So that's good. Of course it also means that he could have gotten a good deal more. He had been advised, back when he was looking for this past job, to ask for a number that was a lot higher, and this last boss looked at him as if he were mad, so he thought the advisor must have been wrong. Now we wonder what would have happened had he tried for that amount in this case. *sigh*
STILL, big raise over what he's been getting with this past job. YAY!
May. 19th, 2009 @ 08:46 pm
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| » I am officially an artisan. |
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I have posted my first offerings on my new Etsy shop thingie. I got the idea when I made some earrings for my mom and sister for Christmas, and made and beaded some scarves for a couple of people. We'll see what Today's Consumer thinks of these. I also have a grocery tote I mostly made a couple of years ago that I need to finish tonight to post on there. I'm really quite pleased with it, and I have ideas for more grocery-themed bags, so perhaps it will become some crazy Vera Whatsit phenomenon. I wouldn't complain.
May. 19th, 2009 @ 08:42 pm
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| » Lavender lace cookies |
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I decided to wait to post these until firynze got her care package in the mail, so they'd be a surprise. I think you should probably make some. I think you might love them.
 
Lavender lace cookies (original recipe here)
Makes two dozen
2/3 c sugar
1/2 t dried lavender
1 egg
2 t melted butter
1/4 t salt
1/4 t vanilla
1/3 c shredded coconut
2/3 c rolled oats
Preheat the oven to 350F. Use a mortar and pestle to crush the lavender into the sugar thoroughly. In a separate vessel, beat the egg. Add the lavender sugar to the egg and mix well with a spoon. Stir in the butter, salt, and vanilla. Then stir in the coconut and oats. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper. (You can also use one of those silicone mats.) Drop the dough in heaping 1/2 teaspoon measures on the sheet, an inch apart. Bake for about 14 minutes, until the edges are golden brown. (You can cook them more or less, depending on how you want them - chewier or crunchier. I think both ways are delicious.) Allow the cookies to cool for a few minutes before lifting them from the baking sheet. They can be cooled on racks then, or eaten warm, or both.
I think the recipe could actually stand to have a little less sugar, and/or to have a combination of white and brown sugars. I think honey would taste nice in them, but then you'd really upset the dry-wet ingredient balance. I have also wondered about the possibility of finely chopped walnuts, hazelnuts, or pine nuts. I guess you don't want to add too much, because the beauty of these is in their simplicity.
May. 12th, 2009 @ 05:57 pm
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| » CostCo buddies? |
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Hey, does anyone want to split a CostCo membership? You don't have to live here - you just have to have access to a Costco. Well, I guess you don't have to have that either, but it seems like it would be useful, no?
I believe the membership is $50, and you get two cards. I think the company expects the second card to go to another member of the same household, but there isn't any control on that.
So let me know if you're into the idea.
May. 12th, 2009 @ 05:54 pm
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| » another Felix haiku |
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Unwise decision
combined with dastardly dog --
Face covered in blood.
Well, it was only half my face covered in blood, really. One doesn't want to be melodramatic. It's not really a big deal. The cut was even enough that they used dermabond (skin super glue) instead of stitches. It hasn't gotten infected, and the bruise is only visible in places, so I don't actually look like L beat me up.
It really was more my fault than his. The dogs and I took a long walk Thursday, and then the family took a really long walk Friday night, and Felix was exhausted at the end. I think we pushed him way too hard. So Saturday the family set out on a family walk, and Felix just couldn't do it. He tried to get into something while he was off-leash (an unwise decision in and of itself) and we couldn't coax him away, so I picked him up. So #1, I was parting him from what he thought of as food, and #2, I blithely scooped him up when he was all sore, and probably pressed on bits that hurt more for it. He growled at first, and I figured that would abate. All of a sudden, he gave a mighty snarl and thrash and I wasn't at all expecting it, so my face wasn't ducked down or turned away. He got me in a nice big bite RIGHT next to my eye, and one fang scored a deep gash, which bled like the dickens because the face does that. L, of course, freaked out at the sight of blood pouring down my face from my eye, thinking the eye itself had gotten hit. Poor guy.
I don't know if it's all the drugs I'm on, or some weird maternal thing, or what, but I didn't drop him. In fact, while I bled, I managed to hold him with one arm and reach the other arm over and around my head to sneak into the one little spot behind his neck that he couldn't get to, grab his collar, and gradually work it around so that I had the ring to clip the leash onto. Felix got two big blood-soaked spots on his back from that.
L ran to get the car, and the dogs and I walked back along the trail to get to the entrance point from the street to meet him. We only passed one man, and I was really worried that he was going to make a scene and the police were going to come take my dog and kill him. The man did all the work for me, though, asking me if I had tripped. I said I had, and he saw the blood on Felix and asked if it was mine, and I said that it was. He said, "Lemme guess, he tripped you?" Absolutely, man. I assured him I was fine and he went along his way. I kind of knew for a second what abused women must feel when they're trying to hide the truth.
May. 12th, 2009 @ 05:40 pm
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| » seven Felix-related haiku |
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Poop on the backseat,
the dog's tail has become sticky --
a big mess all over.
Get in the shower,
Warm water on skin and fur --
emergency bath.
Black hooded sweatshirt,
carrying the dog downstairs -
is that a poop streak?
The rug in the car -
is that some rainwater, or pee?
It's a moist mystery.
Elderly doggie,
poor control of his functions --
clean-up on aisle five.
Doctor prescribed extra food -
hard-boiled eggs, cottage cheese --
Something caused soft stools.
Weak back legs give out -
right as he poops on the floor;
damnedably sticky.
May. 5th, 2009 @ 02:02 pm
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| » I'm not sure this could be more wrong. |
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That, or I have no idea who I am. That's probably just as likely.
| Your Word is "Fearless" |  You see life as your one chance to experience everything, and you just go for it!
You believe the biggest risk is being afraid and missing out on something amazing.
Sometimes your fearlessness means you're daring. You enjoy risky activities.
And sometimes your fearlessness means you're courageous. You're brave enough to do the right thing, even when it's scary. |
Via callenghast
May. 3rd, 2009 @ 03:16 pm
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| » 2009 Books #5-8 |
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5. Sky Coyote (Kage Baker)
This is book 2 of The Company series. It was good. I like the concept of the series, though I will admit this second story didn't quite blow me away. (In the Garden of Iden was really quite good.) I'm reading #3 now, so we'll see if that supports my feelings in one direction or the other. In short, the concept is that a group of mortals in 2300-something figure out time travel. They discover that they can't change recorded history, but they can change little things, and more importantly, they can collect data on people, flora, fauna, geography, stuff, etc etc in those times to be able to preserve them. They can't take things back with them, but they can set up highly sophisticated warehouse-museums where they can store seeds, plant clippings, objects both quotidian and purely artistic, and so on. Then those things are still there for them in the 24th century, well preserved with 24th century technology, to play with. Computer data, like DNA and chemical make-up data, and text on all sorts of different things, can be transmitted to the future. They sometimes reintroduce things, particularly plants and animals, in later centuries, as they see fit. The problem is that it's ruinously expensive to send people into the past. Now it happens that they have also figured out immortality, but it only works if you start modifying people as children, turning them into cyborgs through a number of surgeries and other procedures. So what they do is, they send people way into earliest human history to "recruit" kids, often orphans of war and disease, and turn them into immortal agents who can work through the ages on the future mortals' orders. These immortals in turn recruit more agents now and then, as they find likely candidates. In this story, an entire village is being "collected" before the tribe of Indians that live there are completely wiped out a few decades later by another tribe. It's pretty fun.
#6-7 The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax and The Elusive Mrs. Pollifax (Dorothy Gilman)
I have started re-reading this beloved series about a woman in her retirement years who becomes a CIA agent and goes around the world on harmless courier missions that always end up becoming life and death adventures where she saves a bunch of people's lives and completes the mission more completely than anyone could have dreamed she would, often solving another whole problem along the way. I love these books.
#8 Things Cooks Love: Implements, Ingredients, and Recipes (Marie Simmons)
This is a pretty interesting book explaining a lot of kitchen tools and appliances in general, and then giving a number of chapters outlining regional cuisines and some of the tools specific to them. There are also entries on key ingredients in both parts. There are a couple of recipes accompanying each entry.
May. 3rd, 2009 @ 02:32 pm
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