Quote of the day

"Trust that still, small voice that says, 'This might work and I'll try it.'"

-Diane Mariechild

Happy Birthday Abby!

Dear Abby,

Happy 9th birthday my love! Since the day I met you you've been an incredible light in my life and I know I'm lucky to be a part of yours.

I watched you grow up alongside my precious Bailey, who you treated like a real brother. I know you loved him as he loved you.

I've also discovered, by watching you and hearing about you from your parents and grandparents, that you are a phenomenal little girl. Your heart is so big and your selfless nature sets you apart from most children your age and beyond.

I am so proud of you and proud to be your Auntie. We have so many more memories and birthdays to share!

I will always love you!! xo

Full Moon Friday

It was a typical Friday night - me and a couple of dogs - two of us away from home. Zoe and I spend a lot of nights at our home away from home (Kerry's) with Emma.

Maybe it's the lycans on the brain due to the Vampire Diaries' most recent expansion into werewolf lore, but I was drawn to last night's full moon. My camera isn't the most sophisticated, but I thought a couple of these shots were kinda cool.

The first two have a bit of an ivy halo, while the third has some freaky phantom moon going on above. I have no idea what that spot really is.





I really liked this last one. Looks almost like a contained explosion.

Abby's Bailey and Casey angels

Abby brought me this drawing on Saturday so I could enter it in the kid's drawing contest at my local vet's office. I love the little angels in the clouds that represent Bailey and Casey watching us from over the rainbow bridge!

The Tar Heels got stung Saturday

The game was a bit more of a blur than normal thanks to the Firefly Screw Flys (Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka & orange juice) I drank before kickoff. I do know we were slightly favored to beat Georgia Tech and didn't, but we still had a great time tailgating (early!) and cheering on the Tar Heels.

I have issues with the name of this game - Cornhole. Beavis and Butthead was popular when I was in high school - perhaps that explains my discomfort in part.

But once I got the hang of it I managed to avoid getting completely wiped by my more talented brother. I'd like to think the expression on his face below is due to my making a "hole-in-one."



Followed by my celebratory gleeful jump in the air.




Here's a pic of the cornhole board Todd got last year as a Christmas gift. Nice, huh? I must say though that on many occasions the corn bags landing on the board were quite loud - almost like shotgun blasts!


On the way in to the game I bought two feather boas from some girls on the sidewalk. I managed to get one around Todd's neck and snap a photo. The woman behind me grabbed me by the shoulders and said, "Look out girl! Payback's a bitch!" I told her we're siblings and have been carrying on the payback for 30 years.




People keep telling me to sell my little Tar Heel bears at home games, but I just don't know if I have the patience and time to do it. Sure, if I can sell them from our parking spot while tailgating, but I don't have any plans to hang out on the sidewalk like the boa girls did. I'm just not that entrepreneurial.

More of the nose knows

What could be any cuter?!

I present Joey, my friend's Whippet. And by the way Joey loves the dog treats I bake for him and his parents are beyond fabulous.

Young at heart

It is ridiculous how excited I get at the thought of hanging out with these kiddies.

I spent a fabulous Tuesday evening with Sydney and Felton eating pizza, playing "try to get me" and hide and seek, answering those odd questions and definitely giving lots of high fives, with both hands and feet.



The love Felton shows me melts my heart - he's always so excited to see me. I'm growing on Sydney - or so I hope!

From Bailey to Zoe

After I lost Bailey, it took me several weeks to build up the strength to remove his presence from my house. I left his hair to scatter like tumbleweeds across the hardwood any time the front door was opened. I left his bowls untouched. The water he last drank from remained for more than a week after he was gone.

I finally forced myself to disinfect his bed about 3 weeks after his death. I still kept it off the floor because I couldn't bring myself to let Zoe lounge on it.

As you can see, I've come to terms with sharing Bailey's bed with Zoe. She sleeps on it often, but not nearly as much as Bailey did. She prefers to sleep right next to me.

The bed used to be set up in front of the fireplace, but I moved it Sunday night so I could vacuum. Later in the evening I was surprised to discover that I had no idea where Zoe was, as she's usually right under my feet. I found her snoozing on Bailey's bed under my dining room table. I wish he could still be there with her!

Electric yellow in the house

Or in the tank I should say. I picked up an electric yellow cichlid on Sunday to take the place of my fallen convict cichlid. I thought the fact that the yellow fish is larger would curb the orange cichlid's aggression. Alas I think I was mistaken.

As you can see in the third photo the poor thing has already set up residence in the previous tank inhabitant's favorite hiding place - up by the heater. I hope the aggression abates - I will be really sad to find another violated fish in my tank!

I was quite disturbed to learn that convict and red zebra cichlids (the orange fish) are extremely incompatible. I sure wish that Petco guy had told me that in the first place. I guess I'll be more faithful to my local dedicated fish store to avoid such uneducated sales.

Thanks to all of my fellow recyclers!

After my most recent shipment of wrappers to Terracycle, my total contribution to my chosen charity (Sierra Club) has reached $95.58. By their count, I have submitted 4779 wrappers! I never could've collected so many wrappers without the help of all my green friends.

I hope you'll all continue to help me reduce the amount of trash pouring in to our landfills!

As a reminder, the wrappers I get credit for include all energy, granola, nutrition, cereal and protein bars with an inner foil lining. Examples include, but are not limited to wrappers from the following bars: Kashi, Clif, Luna, Quaker, Kellogg's, thinkThin, Detour, South Beach, Fiber One and Odwalla.

Thank you so much!

Bully

I found my little blue convict cichlid on the bottom of the tank Friday morning. He had been nibbled on. An eye was missing.

I knew it was coming - the orange cichlid has been chasing him around the tank for months. I noticed Thursday night that the little convict was almost completely devoid of fins - most likely due to nipping from the orange bully.

I squinted and lifted the little guy for his flushing funeral.

I'm planning a trip to the local high-end tropical fish store this weekend to purchase a tank mate for orange bully. If I can't find one that is at least as large as the bully I'll leave said bully alone in the tank.

This wasn't my first experience with pet cannibalism. I had two pet gerbils (Chester & Clyde) as a child and I found one of them missing an entire head at one point. Quite disturbing.

I'm willing to speculate that I am affected more than the average aquarist by the loss of a fish. Maybe it's silly, but I always feel the tinge of failure when I lose a tank buddy. Farewell little blue fish.

The nose knows

A dog's sense of smell is supposedly 1000 times greater than that of the average human. So can anyone explain to me why Zoe is always most interested in sniffing out the poop left by other dogs? She finds it with her nose and is then compelled to pee on it. I guess I should be happy that she doesn't eat it!

Perhaps dogs like Zoe would enjoy poop-scented candles? YUCK.

Twist and Pout

I am addicted to these little "twist and pout" lip clips. I got my first one from my sister-in-law for Christmas last year and have since bought 3 more.

They are adorable and can be clipped right on to your keys or purse. I keep mine clipped to my keys since they are within reach 95% of the time, so I'm never without TLC for my lips.



Notice the green one has a Statue of Liberty graphic on it and reads "Lady Liperty." If you check out their site you'll see that they have several cheesy, yet catchy names for their designs.



I purchased mine from Amazon, where they are very reasonably priced. The moisturizer goes a long way and has a fabulous taste and smell; and the container is very well-made. As I said, I keep mine on my keys, which see a fair share of abuse, and I've had no problems with the container at all. I don't think I'll ever give up my twist and pout!

Just in time for football season

At one of the football games last year, my sister-in-law spotted a table where the Rams Club was giving out these tiny patches and between the two of us we managed to snag about 10. I worked on the bears throughout the summer. My mom even helped sew the patches on some of the tiny bears - that part was NOT fun.



I included the photo below because it shows more of the tar heel detail on the ribbon. Thanks for the ribbon Maria!



I still haven't decided if both a patch and pom poms is overkill, so I left several bears without the latter. What do you think?

Quote of the day

"The cream of enjoyment in this life is always impromptu. The chance walk, the unexpected visit, the unpremeditated journey..."

-Fanny Fern

Lazy alligator

The lazy alligator throne always belonged to Bailey. I'm sure he wasn't the first to do so, but my friend Jim coined the phrase for Bailey and me. The first time he saw Bailey in full-stretch he yelled, "Awesome lazy alligator!"

I've never seen another dog stretch out as thoroughly and strategically as Bailey did on a daily basis. Gosh I miss my sweet elkhound!

But here we have Zoe in her standard "relaxed" position. She looks like a frog - short legs splayed behind her little butt, front legs stretched out. I think she does a pretty good lazy alligator given her short tiny body!

Fall Color

Behold my new combo pots hanging from my shepherd hook: calibrachoa, dichondra and petunias. The previous plantings were looking quite bleak. I had a $20 Lowes gift certificate, so these pots were free!



It's realistically no where near fall here in North Carolina, but I'm hoping these combo pots will make it through October.