New Years Eve 2014

Fun with pets.

I came home with every intention of taking the dog downtown to checkout the preparation for Raleigh's First Night celebration - Its way too Fun For The Whole Family to be any real fun for anyone in the family, but you know, but for a  Wednesday night in Raleigh, its better than average.  Oriental has a truly Fun for The Whole Family New Years that is actually fun for the whole family, but they rock.

Instead  of  getting a nice walk I spent the time cleaning this up:

Yes, that is blood. And it was splattered all over the room! Very festive. He pulled down the whole mechanism, in a single piece. It must have taken him some time to do it and I hope the cut mouth was worth it for him. I called the vet and described the scene to them and his condition. I cleaned and peroxided his feet and checked his mouth for wounds and all his parts were just fine. Bloody but unbowed.

And yes, I did send it to dogshaming.com because I want him to go from Cuteoverload.com to dogshaming.com in a single twelve month period. I want him to be internet famous.

His punishment for being so Rocket was to have to watch Ace eat nummy, nummy (earned!) wet cat food and then for dessert? Tuna water!. Ace  didn't fill up on Venetian blinds like some creatures.

Friday Cat Blogging

Ace looks forward to Spring.

Christmas Week

Some Christmas pictures for you

The outdoor decos

The big, bright blob in front of the door  is actually quite charming

So is this one.

There seemed to be a whole lot more of these before I started.

I wasn't sure if the video made it clear how far up he was.

Friday Cat Blogging

"I said: Back up"

Thursday

Rocket and I went to The London Bridge Bar and had another really fun evening benefiting Cause for Paws. Rocket met many new friends and greeted his old friends and a good time was had by all. This week we won the drawing for a $25 gift certificate from Unleashed, The Dog and Cat Store .

Rocket is so comfortable at  the bar that he spent the last hour  sprawled spread eagle wherever he felt would be the most in the way. And then we came home and we both went to bed.

List - Shortened.

Yesterday I featured a carol from  Somewhere and asked which carol it was and what langage was it in.

And we have a winner! Edie is our winner! She guessed Jingle Bells and Russian! She wins a free (to me) trip to next spring to Russia!  Congratulations to her!

Today I finished up my Christmas cards, I sent out the ones that needed sending and now I have the cards that can be delivered myself. Yay me! I still haven't wrapped anything but I may have one more gift to buy, so yeah.

Today's carol quiz. A language spoken in the US.

1. Pavetaa'eva nehe'xoveva Tsexho'ehnese ho'eva,
Jesus Vo'estanevestomanehe. Ehvo'estanetsehestaotsehoo'o
Tsexho'eotsestomotahaetse Vo'estanevehahtsestotse.

2. Ahaa esheeva nehe'xoveva Tsexho'ehnese ho'eva,
Jesus Vo'estanevestomanehe, Tsehvo'estanevehatano'toetse
Netao'o haveseveva, Tsehveno'ohaetse

Say it with me...

Two things I've learned today : Rocket doesn't mind that I throw like a girl

And

A counter surfing dog is the worlds largest cockroach. It is not the dogs fault it is behaving like this, this is your MY fault. This is I learned in my crash course called "How to stop your dog from counter surfing in one easy lesson" - Your dog isn't a bad dog, You (I am a) are a lousy housekeeper. If you don't leave food/dirty dishes/scraps out where your dog can easily access them, your dog WON'T BE ABLE TO ACCSESS THEM AT ALL.  No mess= No Surfing. A clean kitchen is a room with no clear purpose and thus of no interest to a dog.

You get 1) Your voice back, since you lost it repetedly screaming at your dog for doing what comes naturally to it - following its nose and  2) A cleaner, nicer kitchen . 

The next in my wildly unpopular series: Common Christmas Carols with foreign lyrics! Guess the language and the song! The language should be easy, but what song is it?

http://lyricstranslate.com

Колокольчики

Мчится сквозь снег в открытых
Санях, запряженных одной лошадью,
Над полями, где ходим мы,
И смеется во весь голос.
На хвосте у лошади звенят бубенцы,
Воодушевляя людей!
Как же весело смеяться и петь,
Песни, сидя в санях, в эту ночь!

Колокольчики, колокольчики!
Колокольчики - повсюду!
О, как же весело мчаться в открытых
Санях, запряженных одной лошадью!
О, колокольчики, колокольчики!
Колокольчики - повсюду!
О, как же весело мчаться в открытых
Санях, запряженных одной лошадью!

Пару дней тому назад я подумывал
О том, чтобы прокатиться...
И вот Мисс Фанни Брайт
Сидит рядышком со мной.
Лошадь очень устала,
Кажется, нас ждет неудача...
Мы провалились в сугроб,
А потом нас опрокинуло...

Колокольчики, колокольчики!
Колокольчики - повсюду!
О, как же весело мчаться в открытых
Санях, запряженных одной лошадью!
О, колокольчики, колокольчики!
Колокольчики - повсюду!
О, как же весело мчаться в открытых
Санях, запряженных одной лошадью!

Мчится сквозь снег в открытых
Санях, запряженных одной лошадью,
Над полями, где ходим мы,
И смеется во весь голос.
На хвосте у лошади звенят бубенцы,
Воодушевляя людей!
Как же весело смеяться и петь,
Песни, сидя в санях, в эту ночь!

Колокольчики, колокольчики!
Колокольчики - повсюду!
О, как же весело мчаться в открытых
Санях, запряженных одной лошадью!
О, колокольчики, колокольчики!
Колокольчики - повсюду!
О, как же весело мчаться в открытых
Санях, запряженных одной лошадью!

Wrap it up.

I was going to wrap gifts. I walked into the room where I moved the gifts,I stood there looking at them spread out before me and I put one into  a waiting box. And then I left, the room was too cold and I didn't think that I wanted to wrap anything in there.

I hadn't thought about the room temperature being a factor in my many reasons for not wanting to wrap gifts. I thought I had  all of my avenues blocked. The "I hate my paper, its old and now it makes me sad"- Wrapping paper makes you sad? You make me "sad"! What kind of paper did you buy 75%  off after Christmas at Big Lots  that comes with an expiration date?  They don't sell anything with an expiration date. If they sold eggs, they would be eggs that can stay on the shelf forever. Don't talk to me about wrapping paper that is "too old".

I bought new discounted  Big Lots wrapping paper. But not very much, I don't want it to still be hanging around next Christmas making me sad.

The "Oops, I don't have any tape! Well, I'm going to have to not do this now. I know that no where in this house are tape bundles,I never buy tape bundles every year and then forget about it and buy more. I couldn't patch the roof with the shear amount of tape I have in this house" . LIAR.  Sure, you can't buy tape everywhere, they are selling it in bakeries, the Church wants you to buy tape as a fund raiser.This is not a viable excuse.

I bought another bundle of tape.

The "I'm not really through shopping/ still waiting delivery as yet. I don't want to have to get all the stuff out again in a few days for just a couple of things. I am trying to be efficient here!

The "some of these are oddly shaped and  it will be "fun" to search for the right box/solution
        "I'm not sure I'm ready emotionally for this step"
         "If I get everything wrapped, Christmas is over"


SIGH

Art Walking

It was cold and nasty and gross and just perfect for a thick potato soup! I saw the opportunity to use a recipe that 1) uses potatoes, I'm always on the look-out for potato recipes and 2) I love garlic! This uses as much of it as you can tolerate -  and ran with it. Its called Lazy Roasted Potato and Garlic soup, but I worked harder than I usually do to make food and dirtied more dishes than I would have thought. But, the soup is divine and perfect for the winter! Its made with potato, onion, garlic and bacon and chicken stock. You roast the whole mess ( sans stock) in the oven and then dump it into your blender. Please note, if it suggests that you use a blender, use a blender. Save yourself some work.

I tweaked the recipe a little by not discarding the bacon, I cut it into pieces and blendered it with the rest, I think its a good addition.

This weekend was the Boylen Heights Artwalk - it was reschedudled from last weekend when it was miserable and unwalkable. This was a glorious weekend and next year I want to do my Christmas shopping there, this year I shopped ahead and while that's not a bad thing, I saw so many beautiful things that I would have bought had I not all ready bought other things. Sad making.

Next year folks, I hope you like art.

These were some of my favorites : Origami2go , Andie Freeman , Preston Montague , Stacy Lewis , and others that did some amazing work but who don't have it together enough to have a web presence.

All in all, a good weekend was had by all.

Friday Cat Blogging

You must love the baby kitty!

Thwarted.

All week I was excited about this Shop Local Bazaar, I thought How cool! I've been to church bazaars and they are kind of all right, this should be fun. I can finish up my Christmas list!

I could have finished up my list if I had anyone on my list asked for $20 paper thin tee shirts or multiple sizes of  hula hoops . Sadly, no one on my list is going to get paper thin tee shirts or hula hoops. I had such high hopes! I might have been slightly more successful if I could see what I was not buying, The event was held at a downtown club - I should have known to bring my own light, perhaps I didn't feel that there was much there because I couldn't see half of what was in front of me. I know clubs are not exactly well lit by nature, but the organizers could have brought in some of their own lighting to make their products more attractive to buyers.

 This was allegedly the third year they have held this but it was so haphazard and poorly executed that you could have mistaken it for a first annual spur of the moment thing, notsomething I've been getting emails about for weeks. I was so annoyed when I left that I fogot about a quilt show at Deco! I really wanted to go to that, but to be honest,quilts are always more than I can afford and I don't think any one on my list really needs quilted objects in their lives.

Where I also didn't buy anything. I'm now trying not to get too excited about the Boylin Heights Art Walk this weekend.

Hand made by me!

I made it a priority to get my Christmas cards out, I had started to receive them so I thought it might be nice if I was able to return the favor. I scoured my computers both at home and at work and  found my card list and updated it and remember to put both pages I found and updated on a flash drive and then remembered to take the flash drive to work and then remembered to ask how to print them out and when I looked at them at ten minutes before I was scheduled to leave for the day, they looked great.

"Looked great" being  the operative theme, "not great" was what they turned out to be.  They were not great for two reasons : Reason the first being that the last line of the address was on a separate label and Reason the  second being that I have a lot more people on my list than I had labels for.  Lot more.  Not that it mattered because I ended up writing almost all the address by hand because I wound up being only  able to use a total of six of my pre-printed labels at the the end. Which I did so I could avoid having to hand write any of them.

My hand writing which has always been bad, gets worse when I do a lot of it and I have a long list. I know people object to pre-printed address on holiday cards and I do understand this because it just looks</> so much  more homey and it just sends the "By Hand Because I Care" message that is so popular around the holidays. That's all well and good if your hands make pretty things! My handwriting is terrible" and is only borderline legible under the best of circumstances - which is not the set of circumstances I find myself when I am putting out cards. Enter the pre-printed label. I think I deserve some DIY points for not buying fancy store bought  labels but instead stealing state property with my very own hands! A much better use for them then trying to write out  homey, personal sure-to-be-returned-addresses because my hand writing is just that bad. The printed labels are kind of like a ramp for people with bad handwriting...

Labels are our friends! They are neat, legible and there is a better than average chance they will make it to you by Christmas! I also supply the image on my cards every year so I think I get adequate DIY points from that alone. The day after I sent off my sloppy addressed cards, I found the correct thumb drive with the correct list. Perfect.

Christmas Carol Trivia!

http://lyricstranslate.com

Veniţi, credincioşi, bucuroşi şi triumfători,
Veniţi, veniţi in Betleem,
Să-L vedeţi pe regele îngerilor,
Veniţi să-L preamărim
Pe Domnul!

Dumnezeu adevărat din Dumnezeu adevărat, lumină din lumină,
Întrupat din Maria, Fecioara,
Dumnezeu adevărat, născut nu făcut,
Veniţi să-l preamărim
Pe Domnul!

Cântaţi, coruri îngereşti,
Cântaţi în slava Cerului,
Slavă! Slavă întru Cel de Sus!
Veniţi să-L preamărim
Pe Domnul!

Celui care s-a născut astăzi,
Slavă Lui Iisus,
Întrupat din cuvântul Tatălui celor veşnice,
Veniţi să-L preamărim
Pe Domnul!

What language are the lyrics? And which carol is it?

Before and After Pictures

Did much this weekend! The best part though was taking the dog for his second annual picture with Santa.

This was one of last years pictures

He was a little exuberant... and  Santa ended up having to restrain him, this is not the way to make it on to the "nice" list.

This is one of this years pictures

What a difference a year a couple of obedience classes make! This year Rocket practiced self restraint and was happily added to the "nice" list!

Speaking of before and afters, this is tree before I tarted it up. There is nothing really "wrong" with it. but it wasn't finished.

And After. I picked and chose what went on, the boxes are not empty, but I decided that I don't need to put them on the tree if I don't want to. I stuck to pieces that mean something to me. I am proud that are very, very few balls on the tree. There are some, but they are there with permission. All in all, it looks great.

Monday evening I'm dedicating to getting my cards out.\, I spent part of Saturday getting my address sorted out and so once I have my labels made I can really get to work on them and get them out ASAP. I changed my mind and also got cards for Rocket this year to send to his friends after all. They were cheap and they turned out well and we are both happy.

Friday Cat Blogging

The dog has his own house. Yeah well, I'm allowed on the bed.

Santa Inc.

I am thinking up ways of tidying up bath-phobic Rocket before I take him for his 2nd Annual Photo With Santa. The 1st Annual Photo With Santa was a bit of an adventure/ordeal owing to his lack of age and experience and obedience, and I am hoping that this year I can get a picture in less than forty takes.

I could in theory take him to the mall for Doggy and Santa day but I think it would end up being 1) More expensive than Petco and 2) A complete nightmare. He does do really well in crowds and around other dogs and with strangers so it might be okay, but I have a bad feeling about the lights and the people and the whole Mall Environment - it could get ugly and  I'malso afraid it won't and  once we have experienced Picture With Genuine Real Mall Santa in his gorgeous suit and beautiful beard, we won't be able to go back to the Petco Ernest Volunteer Santa in his/her red scrubs and Duck Dynasty (tm) wig beard.

And I'm not sure taking the dog to the Mall Santa doesn't send a bad message about me. My human neice and nephew have never been to the mall to see Santa and my dog has? No, I don't think that would be a good thing.

It had been my practice with Daisy and now with Rocker, that we go to both Petco and Petsmart  for pictures with Santa. It usually took at least two different photo shoots to get the right picture and I never knew which place was going to have the really good frame. Its all about the frame!. Also it was nice to spread the charity money around and most years after the first picture debacle, Daisy was much calmer and easier to direct at the second stop and Rocket is turned out to be about the same. The first Santa actually left in tears after five month old  Rocket ended up sitting on his head! By the second Santa, Rocket was much less combative and only needed to be held down by Santa and an out of frame elf. He's older now and been through several obedience classes so I am hoping it is less of an ordeal for everyone involved.

This year we go to Petco. Petsmart has decided to forgo the picture taking and the frames and instead  are providing a Santa and the opportunity to DIY the picture.Super. The idea being that he $5 donation can go straight to worthy causes! Yay! (according to the Petsmart press release I saw on Facebook). The general feeling from the commenters was Boo! I would rather pay the $8 and not have to take my own picture and score a cute frame! Cheap Bastards! You Suck!  Petsmart claims we can then upload our pictures to out family and friends immediately! - So we will take these shots with out phones? Super High Quality Petsmartman! Wow! I can't wait!

So Saturday, we are going to Petco.  maybe I'll just give Rocket a quick  polish before we go  and maybe some tranqs.

Bow Ties for your Dog, for MY dog.

Wednesday after work., after picking up the dog from daycareI went to a holiday party that a store downtown was throwing for itself. It wasn't so much a "party" as it was "Hey. COme downtown on a Wednesday and brouse our store because we were closed at Thanksgiving because we are run by a committee" . I could have gone there this Friday for First Friday, but its just far enough away from my regualr stimping grounds that I would have to drive there and I drove around last First Friday and, well, it gets dark now.

Anyway. At the store while I was browsing and wishing I had lots of money to spend on my family and friends - because of course I saw things that would be perfect  but perfection comes at a price and if that price is not "clearence", its not going to happen.

Wouldn't it be cool to have enough money to randomly buy art? Instead of trying take covert pictures of it? Here, if I had money, you would so have this for real! Isn't it perfect? Its $75, the artist is local.

Anyway, one of the many things I wanted but could not buy were Doggy Bow Ties . The store wanted $18.50 a pop,so it was a no go for Rocket, but  other stores sell dog bow ties! Target sells doggy bow ties! They aren't as cute as the artisanal/made from locally sourced organic cotton and natural dyes/locally made ties I wanted but couldn't have.

Holding Target in my back pocket I went online.

Shockingly, I am not the first person to be shocked at the prices for retail dog ties! I searched  Dog Bow Ties . A couple of hounded thousand hits, I decided to narrow my search, I went for Slide on Dog Bow Ties, another hundred thousand hits to peruse  - Oddly, out in the world, they are also out of my price range.

Enter DIY. Keeping in mind that  I do not sew :How To Make Dog Bow Ties. This was fine but how about free patterns?  An additional 200,000 + sites to checkout. A quick peak for  How To Knit a Dog Bow Tie  ( Hi Mom!) and then I found  a pictorial on how to make a dog bow tie! Shazaam!

If I could sew or follow instructions I would be a real danger to myself and others. I would also have the best dressed pets in the world.

Tuesday

I am going to decorate the tree. I decided I would be just so depressed if I didn't that it will save time if I just do it and get it over with. Otherwise I have this bad vision of myself finally getting the ornaments on the tree and then having to take it down a week later.

I'm going to do, but not tonight. Tonight I'm basking in my efficiency and time management! Due to having to leave with the dog to take out walk within minutes of coming home, I am now back home at such a time that I can feed both of us, watch a little teevee and still have time to run to Wallyworld to pick lunch stuff  and still be back before 7pm. I could do this same errand before lunch but I would have to pass many, many not-bagged-lunch options along the way so its safer to do this after dinner.

Over the summer we might not even get back from our walk until after seven. Over the summer I can come home from work and relax before going on a forced march. I will admit though, that the forced march is much nicer in the cold than in the heat.When it is cooler we go further and stay out longer.

I look forward to Christmas not because Yay Christmas! but because its after the solstice and it has started to stay a little lighter a little longer all ready. This pre-solstice period sucks for evening walks - but oddly, Rocket gets more walks in the winter because since we finish our walk so early, I sometimes take him out for an additional walk in the evening. Tonight I do not think we'll be walking as Rocket and Ace tired themselves out playing chase and then barking at each other until they both fell asleep. They only stopped because I got tired of the barking and put Rockets bark collar on. This broke the spell and the vibe: Its only fun if you can bark really loud and if you aren't getting bark at at full volume it just isn't worth it.

thedogpeedagainbutinhisboxonhisbedding.

To do or not to do

I have made progress on the Christmas decorations.  Some progress. I got my creche set out and set up

This made me feel pretty good and so I moved on to the mantel. This is not finished because its missing the stockings, but it looks pretty good to me and I'm sitting there looking at it and thinking it looks really pretty  as it is and I start seriously wondering if I really need to hangup the stockings at all.

Isn't  that pretty?Look at that mantel being all shiny and bright and festive. I'm not sure it "needs" stockings.

Now, we move on to the tree. I put the garland on it and took a step back.

I think that looks great. Its pretty and glittery and just about everything you could ask for from a treet.

But.

Eventuially, the lights have to go up

Oh God! Kill it with fire! How awful! But then I started thinking, How often will I be around to see it being ugly? Does it bother me that it's not pretty? Yes and no.  Yes, it would look better in the harsh light of day if it were fully dressed but... I am too lazy to do the job and then I think about the job of stripping it and suddenly I am really wondering Can I not put the ornaments on the tree? Can I do that?

Or.

Will it make me look sad and pathetic? I am going to bring out the Santas!... But then I think, why bring them out if you aren't going to decorate the tree? And then I wonder? Why do any og it? Who is going to see any of it? Why bother doing anything I don't want to deal with? I mean really? What if I don't decorate? Whatif I am happy with the more moderate decorations? I'll have to put some thought into this.

Work to be done.

One of my few Must Gets this weekend was Weimaraner  or Rocket themed ornaments or if I got really lucky, a weim riding on a rocket. I was not successful at the mall. Leave it to freaking Wallyworld to come through

I know the gray things are supposed to be robots but in my world and on my tree, those are weims until  I score the ones I really want - because I need more than one on the tree representing young dog, as it is the tree is just about covered with Daisy dogs , which is great and I'm glad to have them and its always nice to see Daisy, but I also want to see Rocket represented as well.

I gt my trees up and the outdoor stuff taken care of but I still haven't decorated the tree or the mantel piece or brought out the Santas. I have a lot of work to do but it doesn't all have to be done today. I bought a new tree for the office room last year after Christmas but I'm afraid it was not the best choice - it is the saddest little tree ever and I'm not sure if I want it anymore, it may not last the week.

This is it without the cover of darkness

This is it in its Christmas drag. I think it just looks too thin and peaky for a display tree.

When I wasn't looking for Dr. Strangweim ornaments, I was able to get the rest of my shopping done - online, but I got what I needed and if I was smart, I would be wrapping things now instead of waiting until the last minute or asking Broskey to wrap his own gifts for me because he enjoys wrapping gifts and can even do a good job with his eyes closed.

Speaking of things I should be doing now I should be putting my energy to getting my cards out too, I need to get busy with my addresses and make sure that I have new addresses for my people who have moved in the last year.

Things I should be doing right now

- Tree decoration

- Mantel decoration

- Cards mailed

- presents wrapped

- Christmas dog treats for Rocket and Valentine

I don't really need to spend all day at the office do I?