Monday Dog Rant

First of all, let me make it very clear.

I am not mad at Max the Wonder Dog.

I mean who could ever be mad at this…..

I love you Alpha Male.

I am sorry to have to say this but……..

The dog snot/wheezing/sneezing/non barking/licking snot off of paws/pseudomonas symptoms are back. A mere 2 weeks after he finished the gold plated antibiotic.

Can you hear my primal scream where you are? I am sure that you can.

I am thinking of calling this

The Year of Chryseomonas Luteola.

We have had Max in to see the vet in November ‘10 when this started, March, June, July, August and September. He has had 4 courses of tetracycline, one course of some other antibiotic that I don’t remember, one course of Zenoquin (the gold plated medicine), multiple courses of steroids and antihistamines.

I am about at my wits end with this business.

My nose is very snotty Alpha Male. And I just sneezed on the kitchen cabinets. You can thank me later.

I am waiting to talk to Dr. Jeremy when he is in the office tomorrow. I hope he has some fabulous idea about what to do that won’t have the same approximate cost as the GDP of a third world county.

And on another note

I furminated the dog this afternoon and I think the pile of hair is the size of another small dog. This stuff is as soft as anything you can imagine and I just want to learn how to spin so that I can spin this stuff and then knit with it.

But, I don’t think I want to smell like a wet dog.

7 Quick Takes (Vol 136)

Friday's here. Be of good cheer. For you know that means the weekend’s near. Remember the routine. Read my blatherings and then click on the picture above to be whisked, at the speed of Herman Cain’s rising poll numbers, over to Conversion Diary to see what has been happening with everyone else.

Now let us blather.

1.
I cannot believe I missed this milestone!

Monday The Dick Van Dyke show turned 50!

You have watched the Dick Van Dyke show right? I mean it is only the most fabulous comedy/sitcom that the 1960’s produced.

Growing up Pilot Man and I were allowed only a certain amount of TV a day. Not a whole lot. And that meant that I needed to carefully plan what was to be watched. And you couldn’t use the old “I was just sitting in here when Bobby had the TV on. Those weren’t the shows I was going to watch” excuse. If you were in the same room as a TV that was turned on then you were technically watching and it counted towards your precious TV minutes. The Dick Van Dyke show was ALWAYS in my TV lineup. And I will admit that I have a number of the episodes in DVD form so I can watch whenever I want.

I can still quote lines from shows. I loved it so.

I think I will go and watch some right now.

2.
Yesterday started out so well. The sun was bright. The temperature was going to be in the 70s. There wasn’t going to be ANY rain. Have I mentioned that we have had 50+ inches of rain this Summer? I had blocked out the day to work outside. You have to take advantage of these days when you have them. You never know around here what is coming down the pike weather wise.

I was just a landscape cleanout machine. I had The Diane Rehm Podcast going, Bob Edwards dulcet tones were coming through my ear buds on my ipod. Pulling up that doggone ivy that I planted in some sort of brain fart. Trimming the Nordic Holly and the Tea Viburnum. Cutting back the hosta. The final thing to do was cut back the spirea. To do that I had to use the electric hedge trimmer. Oh I love that thing. It cuts through bushes like buttah.

I am zooming along. Brrrrrrrrrr. Brrrrrrrr. Brrrrrrrr.  ZAP! And just like that I cut through the extension cord. Not just cut it enough to kill it but all the way through it like I was auditioning for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Well darn it. So I went and got another extension cord to finish the job. The bushes are a trimmed to my satisfaction. I was excited about moving on to the next project and with a last and overly enthusiastic flourish of the hedge trimmer………I cut through the SECOND extension cord.

And about that time the dog comes strolling back into the yard. He isn’t supposed to be able to stroll OUT of the yard but the invisible fence isn’t operating right now and we haven’t had his zappy collar on. I take a cursory look at him and realize he is covered with mud. Dripping with muddy water and covered with mud.

DAMN!!!!!!!!!

I am sorry to the neighbors for saying damn. It slipped out.

So I then had to spend 20 minutes washing the dog. And it took all of that 20 minutes to get the water to stop running muddy. And by the time it was all said and done I was as wet as the dog was.

So I figured that I had better just quit before I cut through something else and cut off all the electricity for the Eastern Seaboard.

3.
HHBL and I are going to make a second attempt at taking our Tow Path bike ride tomorrow. It is supposed to be a beautiful day and I am thinking that the trees are going to have some lovely color. I am sure that I will have some pictures to show next week although I have decided that I am only going to take my little camera with me. The “big girl” camera is just too heavy. I lugged it along the last time.

4.
Remember this sad and wrenching garden event?

Death of a Gnome

Well Mimi has solved that problem. Look what she gave me last weekend!!

My very own Travelocity Gnome!!! He doesn’t have a name yet but he will by the time he takes up residence in the garden next Spring. Until then he will be residing in the garage.

5.
I rely heavily on my Google toolbar (and Swagbucks but that is for another post). And so it is has been a total frustration to me that, with the latest update of Firefox…..

My Google toolbar is incompatible!!!

It is gone. It isn’t there. I need it. I cannot tell you how many times this week I have gone to click on one of my most used icons and realized that it isn’t there because to tool bar isn’t there.

GRRRRRRRRRR

Come on Google and Firefox get your act together. I wouldn’t have done the update had I known this was going to happen.

I don’t like change.

6.
I hate to write this phrase out. I am tired of writing this phrase out.

The dog is wheezing AGAIN and has nasal congestion AGAIN. Just at about the two week mark since he finished his gold plated antibiotic.

Not again. PLEASE not again. We have been dealing with this “little” infection, if you can call pseudomonas little, for around 10 months now. I don’t even know what the next step is as I was afraid to ask after the last medication.

I have been ignoring the signs for several days now. The occasional sneeze. The vague sense that his nose is runny. The occasional wheeze when he sleeps.

But I can no longer deny it. I can hear him wheezy sleeping. He is in his “house” in the laundry room and I am in my office.

DARNIT!!!!

So, I may be having to call Dr. Jeremy on Monday so that we can pay our next installment towards his children’s college fund.

AND the dog is limping again today.

7.
I know I am not alone in mourning the loss of Steve Jobs. I am not sure what I would do without my little ipod touch, which inhabits almost all aspects of my life. That is the only Apple device I own at the moment but it is a significant one for me. I listen to music on it. I read books on it. I keep my calendar on it. I take notes on it. I use it for bible study. I play games on it. I send email on it. I Facebook and Twitter on it. I Google+ on it. I listen to the radio on it. I watch Youtube on it. I take pictures and video with it. I use it when knitting.

You get the picture.

And I am hoping, one of these days, to own an ipad.

I want one BAD.

But that will have to wait for a bit.

So, thank you Steve Jobs for being innovative, for following your goals, for giving me my ipod.

The 100 Days Clean Out Challenge

Well, it is here.

The day I have been thinking about for a long time. The blog I have been contemplating and cogitating over.

Because I don’t have ANYTHING else to do in my life I thought I would start another blog.

Someone knock me upside the head.

But for a long time I have been thinking about the whole cleaning out process. I know how hard it is for me to let go of things. If you could see the basement and the kitchen cupboards you would see what I mean. And even though I have already cleaned out/given away/donated a boat load of stuff there is still more to be worked through. Hence The 100 Days Cleanout Challenge.

Much of the stuff has some sort of story attached to it. And really, aren’t our lives just one long series of stories stitched together. I thought it might be fun to share what I am cleaning out. To tell the story. And to encourage everyone else to clean out too. You don’t have to participate for 100 days (or more perhaps). You don’t have to participate at all. You can just comment and encourage me. Follow me. Link to me. Help me. Believe me, I need all the encouragement I can get as I grasp tightly to things that have no use.

For the most part I won’t be referring to The 100 Days Cleanout on Stop Her She’s Knitting. I will be putting a side bar link up ASAP but the blogs are independent of each other. I certainly have enough words to cover both patches of “internet ground”.

The 100 Days Cleanout

Hope to see you there. And if you want to tell me your clean out stories just email me. I would be glad to highlight and help.

Sometimes You Really Did Want That

Here at Chez Knit I am gearing up for the launch of 100 Days of Clean Out.

That sounds like there will be massive press coverage and that Elizabeth Vargas will be calling to talk about a segment on 20/20. Somehow I seriously doubt that one. And I will be glad if someone, anyone, arrives there and leaves a comment. I am pitiful.

Yesterday I spent a good portion of several hours cleaning out some files. Looking through old articles. Throwing out recipes from the 1970’s that I KNOW I will never make. Scanning some things so that I have digital copy and then throwing the paper away.

I was a file purging machine.

And somewhere in the back of my little knitty brain there was a voice. A small voice. A plaintive voice that tried to make itself heard over the din of

PITCH IT! PITCH IT! PITCH IT!

That little voice said……I think you are going to want to keep that newspaper article.

Nah! I don’t need it. I don’t even know when I cut it out of the paper. It is old and yellowed. I don’t even know why I cut it out although I think it had something to do with a book that I had read about the subject.

Into the black plastic garbage bag it went. And then I dumped two other garbage cans worth of paper etc. on top of it. And I had fully intended to take it out to the big garbage can before the pick up came but never got around to it.

And so, of course, this afternoon I was reading some blog posts and one of them had something to do with the EXACT nature of that article: The liturgy of the hours.

Hey! Wasn’t that the same subject as that newspaper article that you so carelessly threw away despite the fact that your little inner voice was telling you not to.

Yes. Now be quiet.

And that meant……

I had to go back through the bulging garbage bag. The bag that just sat there malevolently, pulsing with garbagy life.

I wanted that article. And if I wanted that article I was going to have to work for it.

Sigh.

It wasn’t pretty.

Oh there was lots of paper.

And pieces of gum stuck to paper.

And an old apple core or two that I might have pitched in my office garbage can.

And a candy wrapper. But we won’t talk about that.

Discarded coupons, globs of dog hair, globs of my hair (I shed like a dog), an old pen or two.

And a great deal of used Kleenex. It only makes it marginally better to know that the used Kleenex was mine.

And there, at the very bottom of the bag, hiding under an old magazine was the article. It has now been safely retrieved and re-filed.

So that the next time I clean out files I can throw it away.

It is the circle of life you know. Or at least my version of it.

He Made It Himself!!

This is my Grandfather Amsler, taken around 1967 I think. Grandpa was many things. He was a Presbyterian minister. He was a talented artist. He was a teller of droll jokes and a fryer of breakfast hamburgers.

He was a photographer.

In most of the houses that I remember he and Grandmother living in he had a dark room set up somewhere in the basement. I come by the “photography gene” legitimately.

Where am I going with this rambling? Do I have a point? Yes I do.

Last weekend, when we were out in Wheaton visiting the Parental Units I heard my father say,

Deb, come in here for a minute.

So, I stroll into Papa’s office. He takes something off the shelf and hands it to me. It is a heavy box shaped object, made of metal and red in color. There are several dials and a hole in the front and a bracket on the top. About 4 inches high by 5 inches deep by 6 inches wide.

And did I say that for such a small box it was really heavy.

Do you know what this is?

I didn’t have a clue.

Can you guess what it is? If you guessed a camera, minus the lens, you would be correct.

And what is so special about this particular camera is….

Grandfather Amsler made the entire thing.

This is what it looked like when it was fully operational. There was a lens. There was a flash. There were all the appropriate dials.

He manufactured the bracket for the flash himself. And then, to connect the flash to the camera,

He manufactured an external plug on the side.

I am just flabbergasted and tickled with this little piece of family history. It is similar to an early Hasselblad in construction, or so Papa says. Never having had my hands on one I will take his word for it. And it is now sitting on my shelves where I can look at it every day and marvel at it’s engineering.

And thank my lucky stars that I live in the age of digital photography. Cuz this sucker is heavy.

Why Am I So Tired?

Why is it that when I take a trip, even a small one, the integration back into real life is so traumatic.

We were visiting the parental units/progeny/alma mater this weekend.

Not my alma mater, that would be Baylor University….

That good old Baylor Line.
That good old Baylor Line.
We’ll march forever down the years.
As long as stars shall shine…

Ummm, sorry.

We were visiting Valparaiso University where HHBL matriculated.

I love that word. Matriculated. It just rolls right off my tongue.

Maaaaatriiiiiculaaaaated. Go on, try it.

Ummm, sorry again. I digressed.

So, in no particular order, this past weekend we….

• Ate
• Bought yarn. Yarn diet? What yarn diet?
• Went to a Wheaton College Artist Series concert: organ/Millar Brass
• dropped my phone on the floor of Edman Chapel in the middle of the concert.
• Ate some more
• Took a small number of pictures.
• Sat in the dark for 4 hours because the electricity was out. We actually had to talk to each other, we didn’t get to finish watching Hoarders and I got to play with the huge flashlight that Papa provided. I sat in bed, under the covers and read. It felt just like childhood.
• Drank coffee
• Drank wine
• Made small talk with loads of people I didn’t know.
• Ate even more
• Found that the guy sitting next to me at a dinner I was attending for HHBL’s college reunion graduated from the same high school as I did and lived around the corner from me at one point. It is a small world.
• Went to ANOTHER orchestra concert. I feel very cultured.
• Had lunch at HHBL’s old frat house.
• Went to brunch with the progeny and their “boys”
• Laughed a lot.
• Ate pork and chicken and beef and eggs and veggies and potatoes and bread and sausage and……
• Walked a bazillion miles all over campus.
• Listened to an Oompa band at Octoberfest
• Ate an appetizer that I THOUGHT was bacon wrapped water chestnuts. But it turned out to be bacon wrapped around some form of liver. One of the most disappointing, and frankly just nauseating, moments in my life. Who does that to a perfectly respectable piece of bacon!
• Bought another insulated coffee mug because, you know, you can never have enough of them.
• Spent about 15 hours in the car.
• Had cake and coffee cake.
• played with 5 cats. Larry and Wendy actually have 6 cats but one decided to ignore us.

No wonder I am so tired. I think I need a nap

7 Quick Takes (Vol 135)

Yipee!!! It is Friday and I have actually found 7 things to blather about. You know the rules. After partaking of my blather you click on the pic above to be whisked, at the speed of Herman Cain’s rising pole numbers, over to Conversion Diary to see what everyone else is doing.

And now the blather blather blather.

1.
I am going to rant a minute so be prepared. At the present moment I am not happy with my browser, Firefox. Not that they care one little bit about that but I am frustrated. They nag me and nag me and nag me about installing the latest update. And when I do I find that my Google toolbar is not compatible with this latest update.

I. Need. My. Google. Tool. Bar.

I used it all the time. And it is not there. And I am bereft.

Grrrrrrrrrrr. Get it together Firefox!

2.
This is my old high school

Wheaton Central High School

We were the Tigers. I think I still have a pin or two and some other memorabilia hanging around somewhere with the Tigers logo.

Why am I posting this picture you are asking yourself.

Because soon, it will be no more. Soon, it will be torn down and a food market of some kind will be put up in it’s place. Granted, it hasn’t been a high school for a while now. They switched it to being a middle school for a number of years and then closed it altogether. But it will always be Wheaton Central High School to me.

I am sad.

3.
I was a bad girl yesterday.

I broke my yarn diet. I had been so good. Really I had.

Honest.

And then, well……

I knew that there was a yarn shop that I hadn’t visited in the town where I was born. And we were visiting said town. And I really thought that it was my duty to just stop in there to see, just to look, just to browse and pet the yarn.

Serious knitters pet the yarn. Did you know that. You have to run your hand across it and see what it feels like and pick it up and look at it, and think about it, and pet it some more.

Mimi didn’t think that this place had a lot of yarn. But she hadn’t been in there for a while.

She was wrong.

A WALL full of Cascade 220. Cubbies and cubbies FULL of sock yarn. Cubbies full of lace yarn. An entire store full of yarn.

Oh help me.

And I bought two skeins of sock yarn. Just two mind you.

We all have to break our diets every once in a while you know.

4.
We are having lunch today with Slim Jim, Shoe Queen and Slim Jim’s mom, The College Professor.

And I am unaccountably nervous for some unknown reason.

Which is perfectly ridiculous.

Really.

And maybe she is nervous about meeting us. I will hope so because I am nervous about meeting her. Which is ridiculous because they aren’t getting married for Pete’s sake! They are just dating.

Oh put on your big girl panties Deb and get over it!

5.
Just to let you know. Because I don’t have enough to do.

Starting next week sometime you will have another blog to watch and stalk.

The 100 Days of Cleanout will be going live on Thursday morning.

There isn’t anything there yet. Just an empty blog waiting to be filled.

So come on over to The 100 Days of Cleanout and see what it is all about.

But don’t come until Thursday.

But please stop by and comment and tell me what you are going to clean out. If enough people are interested we can do a blog carnival. But I am not going to think about that yet.

6.
As just a “teaser” for more Pictures From The Crypt I give you……

Was I trying to imitate a beaver? Evidently my favorite thing to do at this age was to re-arrange this cabinet.

And I seem to have gotten a late start in the hair department.

We have been looking at slides. Oh there are some DOOZIES I can tell you. I can hardly wait.

7.
By the time I finally get these Quick Takes published it will be way later than I had intended. I had meant to write them all last night. To be all witty and pithy as I usually am.

But then the power went out.

We are actually at the home of the Parental Units and we were happily having a glass of wine and watching “Hoarders” when ZAP POP ZZZZZZZZZ Off On Off On Off! The power went out.

And stayed out. For 3 hours. And by then I just wasn’t going to sit down and write these out.

So I am a bit late.