Ice Storm & a PUPPY!!!

We did get some "wintry precipitation" a couple of weeks ago.  Mostly in the form of ice.  It was an unusual experience for this area-- and that's probably a good thing!  (g)  Most places that could remain closed for a couple of days did so, and fortunately for us, Donald was able to work from home. 

Photos:

Our roof was coated in white:

Some impressive icicles formed, here and there!

We made sure the feeder was stocked with seed, and we put up a (temporary) makeshift "platform"-style feeder, too-- and scattered some seed on the ground around it.  There were lots of birds visiting.  Mostly sparrows, but also some finches, a couple pairs of cardinals, and a couple of blue jays. 

The birds appreciated the extra food.  (Our local birds aren't used to such prolonged cold, of course.)  --And we enjoyed watching them throughout the day(s).  :o)

More icicles-- on a leatherleaf mahonia, this time:

Another view of the front yard:

(There are more photos of the ice on our Flickr photostream.)

Very soon after the ice melted here, Donald found an ad for Eskie puppies near Birmingham (Bessemer).  We've been thinking about getting an Eskie pup for a while, but they're rare around here, and months and months of keeping an eye on the ads had yielded nothing-- so we decided to pounce on this opportunity right away.  (We also arranged to pick out a male puppy for Granny L., because she's also been looking.) 

Tangent:  We saw some ice and/or snow on the drive up (mostly just on the shaded slopes), and there was still sand/soil on many bridges (put there to help during the icing). 

So here's our little snowflake, the day after she blew in from the north. ;o)

We named her Luna. 

She was born on December 19th, and her hobbies include biting fingers, toes, ears, hair, etc. (with varying degrees of force), chasing toys, chewing toys (fabric preferred, at the moment), chasing Trixie (who would really rather not be chased, thankyouverymuch), running around the yard, pulling at grass and weeds, flopping down on this one particular cushy, grassy spot, growling and yapping when thwarted, and generally being a ball of attitude and energy.  Oh, and napping. 

Here are a couple more photos, taken a few days later:

We need to take more photos, because she's already grown a lot! 

Sightings: Eskie & Snake

This morning, I noticed that Kindle had changed the ad display overnight-- and the new advertisement included what looks an awful lot like an Eskie:

...I guess it could be something else, but it looks a lot like an Eksie wearing a pair of goofy glasses...
...Not that I would have any reason to know what that looks like...

You don't see Eskies in ads or other media as often as the more popular breeds, so it's exciting (for Eskie-obsessed people, at least) when you do spot one.

Sorry, couldn't help sticking in another silly Trixie photo.  Or three.  ;o)

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This afternoon, we were standing with the back door open, watching the rain and enjoying a little fresh air.  I think we saw the snake at the same time, because when I asked, uncertainly, "Does that look like a...?", Donald finished my sentence: "Snake."  (g)

He went out to get a closer look and see what kind it was-- a kingsnake.  I'm always happy when it's a kingsnake-- the best kind of snake there is, around here.  (They eat venomous snakes!)

I went out with the (smaller, lesser) camera later, took a few photos, and watched it leave the yard.  Maybe it'll stay in the area, but just not in the yard.  I don't want the dogs (Molly, most likely, because Trixie seems to have a little more sense regarding snakes-- maybe-- knock on wood, cross my fingers, etc.) wrangling with any snakes, if I can help it. 

That's not the first snake sighting of the year, though. Donald and I have both seen what is probably a black racer, this spring, and Donald has seen at least one brown water snake on the easement. So far, no really bad snakes, though. (Knock on wood again...)

Look, It's an Eskie Puppy!

Okay...
Eskie puppy videos make (almost) everything better. Even if they do grow up into bratsy little dogs that like to wake you up in the pre-dawn hours, knowing full well that you'll have trouble going back to sleep. ;o)

I ought to go to YouTube for early-morning, puppy-based entertainment, from now on. (And Facebook shall be shunned forever and ever, amen. In that direction lie fail-proof depression triggers.)

To Anyone Considering an Eskie for an Indoor Pet

The Eskie.

As a puppy, adorable. . .

As a grown dog, beautiful. . .

A (mostly) loyal and (sometimes) obedient companion. . .

Energetic. . .  Intelligent. . . Athletic. . .

And a constant source of amusement and company. . .

They are also little fur-shedding machines.

If you have an indoor Eskie, you can expect long, frizzledy white hairs on the sofa, rugs/carpet, and your clothes*.  Dog-hair "tumbleweeds" will mysteriously appear in corners (particularly in hard-floored rooms).  Your belongings will seem to generate not only a layer of dust, but also of dog hair.  And your vacuum cleaner will fill up faster than you ever thought possible.

(A word of warning:  If you're squeamish about hair and/or fur, it may be best if you just skip the next photo. . .)

This is our vacuum cleaner's canister after I vacuumed one room.  (I know because I emptied it before I started.)   

Admittedly it is a decent-sized room-- the room we use most-- the room Trixie spends 95% of her time in-- and a carpeted room.  But still.  I think you'll agree that this is. . . impressive (?)-- especially considering that it's been only a week since the last time I vacuumed this room-- and this time I didn't bother to hook up the attachments to vacuum the sofa and all the little nooks and crannies.

I guess I can't blame it all on Trixie, but she's responsible for the majority of it.  It's just part of what you have to expect when you keep this kind of dog inside the house.

And yes, she's worth it.

*When dressing to go out, you have a few options.  Don't wear dark colors, change at the last minute-- and don't you dare sit down or handle the dog after changing-- or have someone de-fur you on your way out the door.  Well, there's one other option-- decide that you don't care if people know that you have a sheddy dog at home.  Wear your dog-hair-covered clothes with pride!

Donald's Coming Home!!, &tc.

I'm a bundle of nerves, today, mainly because Donald's flying home from Sweden, and I just can't make myself really believe that he's safer in those planes than behind the wheel of a car. He's still on the transatlantic leg of his journey-- by far the worst part of the trip, at over ten hours of tedium. I'll breathe a little easier when that flight's safely landed, but then there's still one more flight to go. My stomach gets tied up in knots over airplanes...

I've been able to track Donald's flights on the airline's website-- whether they've been delayed and why, exactly when they depart and arrive-- that sort of thing. Thanks to that nifty feature, I saw that his transatlantic flight (the other way over) was "delayed due to accommodating passengers", though I wasn't exactly certain what that meant. It sounded a little ominous to me, but fortunately it wasn't a very long delay, and they actually landed in Amsterdam a bit ahead of schedule.

When I spoke to him the next day (after he finally reached his parents' home), he explained that, as he understood it, a few people had smuggled alcohol aboard the plane and were kicked off the flight, and the delay was due to finding and removing their luggage. Pretty weird! On that same flight, someone came in over the intercom asking for anyone with medical knowledge to go to the back of the plane! (I'm glad I wasn't on that flight!)

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Over the weekend (and yesterday), I gave my parents and maternal grandparents a little help planting pine seedlings (saplings? not sure what the difference is...) on the property where they'll eventually be building. The trees are tiny, but this type (slash pine) usually grow amazingly fast.

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Trixie is systematically attacking every bit of "decor" around the yard. She finds things that I haven't noticed in months (if not years)-- and then proceeds to destroy them. Her latest acquisitions: a plastic, bird-shaped garden stake (the type with the wings that twirl in the wind) and a metal, dolphin-shaped medallion attached to some wind chimes (the weight/wind-catcher part). I'm thinking she focused on these because it's been so windy the past few days, but she's previously directed her attentions toward harmless, non-moving, non-noise-making items. She's a terror to lawn ornaments, that dog.

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One of my parents' Shelties, Mandy, had a run-in with a skunk, last night. (The crazy thing-- the skunk, not the dog ;o)-- even chased her right up to the steps of the house!) Before anyone knew that she'd been sprayed, she was taken to a bathroom, and though she was only inside for a few minutes, Mom's had a job getting the smell out of the house. And of course poor Mandy will have to undergo some destinkification processes, too. In the meantime, she has to stay in an out-building (shed/barn). What a lot of trouble from a chance encounter with the dreaded "polecat"!

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I started cutting squares for a denim rag quilt back in November 2007. Rag quilts are just about the simplest quilt you can make, I guess, and yet it has taken me a bit over a year to finally finish my first one! (And it's still not technically finished, since I have lots of snipping to do-- not to mention putting it through the wash a couple of times to get it really raggedy.)

In my defense, once I started sewing at it in earnest, it didn't take me long to do. I ran into a problem-- a broken needle on my sewing machine-- early in the project (probably back in 2007). After that, I set it aside and was hesitant to pick it back up again, wondering if my machine (and I) could handle all those layers of fabric. It turns out I needn't have worried, though. I went through the rest of the project without breaking any needles.

All in all, the process went very smoothly. It's certainly not the work of an expert. There are many places where the blocks don't line up perfectly-- and I got careless (tired?) at the end, so the final seam around the whole quilt is not a uniform distance from the edge of the fabric-- but I told myself at the time that it's supposed to look somewhat haphazard-- and it'll definitely work as a lap quilt, despite cosmetic flaws. I'm satisfied, and since I'm the one who'll be using it, that's good enough.

Here's the quilt, pre-snipping and not yet thoroughly "ragged":

I'll have to photograph the back, too. I went to a fair deal of trouble making sure my three colors of flannel backing fell into a specific pattern. It's nothing fancy-- just diagonal lines-- but still, after putting in the effort, I want people to notice it. ;o) I thought it would show more from the front (in the exposed seams), and maybe it will, once it's ragged out. Right now, though, it looks pretty random.

Anyway-- that's one craft project nearly completed! Soon I can move on to another sewing project, and with the knowledge that I can finish sewing a quilt, even if it takes me more than a year.

Bits & Pieces

Just like the title says. :o)

Some of the bits may be tastier than others. Skip at will! ;o)

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When I was a kid, we had a book about a white dog with black spots (Harry) who hated baths and got so dirty that he ended up looking like a black dog with white spots:


If we let Trixie dig in the red soil as much as she'd like to, we'd soon end up with an all-red dog. (Red until her hair shed the soil, which happens surprisingly quickly with these self-cleaning Eskies.)

Here she is after a glorious hour or two of digging:

This is what she's s'posed to look like, in case you've forgotten. ;o)

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Donald recently cleared out the dog pen so that we could leave Trixie out on her own, sometimes. Technically speaking, we could leave her out on her own in the whole yard, but the pen is a more controlled environment. No overgrown areas. Less potential for snakes. Not as many things she can get and eat without our knowing about it.

Today, she was in the pen, and we'd let Molly out for a while so she could roam the whole yard without a puppy shadowing her every move. We'd done this before with nothing worse than a few dissatisfied barks from Trixie. But this time, when I went to bring them back inside, I found that Trixie had gotten her head stuck in the gap between the gate and the gate post. Molly was right there in her face, making things worse by barking.

Trixie must have found a way to get her head out (in an effort to get to Molly, no doubt), but then couldn't get it back in again. Fortunately, it wasn't hard to free her, once I opened the gate, but then Molly began acting crazy and scared Trixie into her submissive "belly-up" pose.

Eventually, everything was sorted out. Trixie was sweet (not nibbling) for a while, like she usually is after she's been (severely) scolded, scared, or just woken-up-- but (also like usual) she soon recovered and was back to her jaunty self.

For just a minute, though-- when I saw Molly barking frantically and Trixie just lying there at the gate, not responding when I called her name-- I felt sick with worry that something awful had happened. That puppy's going to have to be a little more careful with her well-being, for both our sakes!

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Minnesotans, you aren't really going to elect Al Franken into a serious political office, are you? (What is it about Minnesota and kooky political figures?) I can't believe it's so close that there has to be a recount. The whole thing seems like a really bad joke. You know, the kind you see on Saturday Night Live.

Incidentally, I honestly don't understand how that show has survived so long. Maybe it was funny once upon a time. Maybe it can be funny, now, on very rare occasions, but every time we've watched it in the past however-many years, we've been sorely disappointed. Is it just us? Do you have to be drunk to appreciate their way of taking a mediocre joke and repeating it over and over again until it's actually painful (for the sober and mentally competent) to watch? Yeah, that must be it. It's certainly not that we don't have a sense of humor. If you like silly late-night stuff, try MadTV for a change, sometime. It can be stupid, too, but I think it's generally better than SNL.

But I digress. Back to the subject at hand.

Al Franken? Seriously? (shudder)

I try not to make (too many) comments on people's physical appearances, because sometimes we just can't help the way we look-- and I'm not under the illusion that I'm everyone's ideal of beauty, myself. That said, the man gives me a major case of the gross-outs. I think it's his mouth. . . and his weird "Jokeresque" eyebrows. (shudder again) If so much else about the man weren't also repugnant, maybe I wouldn't dislike the very look of him, but as it is-- yuck. Also, if he weren't such a (fill in the blank), I wouldn't feel comfortable insulting him publicly, even if I still privately thought him hideous. (shrug)

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The pa-tay-o (as I like to call it) still looks kind of like this, from a distance:


But one of these days it's gonna be great. ;o)

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My Little Beauty Queen of a Puppy. . .

Yesterday afternoon, I caught her just lying there in her crate with her teeth over one of the bars. Her upper lip was pushed up and she looked like a hilariously bucktoothed dog. Of course, by the time I got the camera (which took less than a minute, since it was right beside me), she'd moved. Here's another lovely pose, though, showing off some of her new teeth:

Introducing Trixie :o)

Yes, the puppy has a name! You can finally stop sitting on the edge of your seat. ;o)

We started out with quite a list of possibilities, then narrowed it down the three: Trixie/Trixy, Pippi, and Kismet.

We thought of "Kismet" almost immediately, and I kept returning to it in favor of other names. I still really do like the name, but in the end, we felt that it simply didn't roll off our tongues the way we wanted.

"Pippi" would've been a nice nod to the Swedish element of our lives. (Pippi Longstocking is a classic character in Swedish literature.) However, the English and Swedish pronunciations are slightly different, and we finally decided that we favored "Trixie".

Then we went back and forth over the spelling! (g) "Trixie" or "Trixy"? I wasn't terribly thrilled by some of the slang definitions for "Trixie" that we found online, but by then we'd pretty much settled on some spelling of that name, so I'll just try to forget those mild annoyances. (Should be easy enough. I manage to forget so many things without even trying, after all!)

Anyway, as I said, there was much going back and forth about spelling, but I think we've finally decided to stick with "Trixie". It's more common than "Trixy"-- not a selling point, from our perspectives-- but we feel it just looks nicer on paper (or in pixels). So "Trixie" it is!

I think "Trixie/Trixy" and "Pippi" would both suit her equally well, as she is now. Her personality may mellow as she ages, but so far, she's been growing in the other direction, showing more spirit and spunk every day.

In fact, I think we may have our hands full with this one!



All this fuss over naming a dog! (g)