That's it! A concrete yard for us.

*sigh*

I'm trying to figure out which saplings to plant where (from the ones we got at a recent Arbor Day celebration/tree-give-away). Donald seemed particularly interested in the Chinese Horse Chestnut, because he remembers a horse chestnut from his youth, so I started with that one.

Two things I just learned about horse chestnuts:

First, you can use them as soap, in a pinch. I had to laugh when the author noted that the chief drawback of using the nuts as soap is that you will smell strongly of horse chestnuts. No-- really?! ;o)

Second, though the nuts are technically edible, they can be poisonous if eaten in quantity, and it's suggested that you roast them and/or soak them in water. (Seems like an awful lot of trouble, unless you've no other option. Personally, I'd rather avoid foods that might be even a little poisonous. I.e., no, I won't be eating blowfish.)

So, after reading about their toxicity, I wondered how safe this tree would be for our (current or future) dogs. What would happen if they ate/gnawed on the nuts (assuming the tree ever grows big enough to make nuts)?

I found this page, with its partial listing of plants toxic to cats and dogs.

Hm. Maybe we'll just cover the whole yard in concrete.

Good grief! I don't think there's a single non-toxic plant on the property!

I guess we'll go ahead and plant the horse chestnut and just hope for the best. There are a hundred different varieties of poison out there, if the dogs start eating the plants. I'll just have to hope they have the sense to not eat the vegetation. . . Either that, or I'll keep them in the house 24 hours a day. . . (Oops. Donald just reminded me that we have poisonous indoor plants, too. Sorry, Molly and Trixie!)

CD Cover Meme

My parents sent us an e-mail, yesterday, with a fun meme for designing your imaginary band's first CD cover.

Here are the instructions (with our CD covers below):

1 - Go to Wikipedia. Hit “random”
or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random.
The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to "random quotations"
or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3.
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to Flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days.
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use Photoshop, Powerpoint or similar to put it all together.

My band's CD cover:


Donald's band's CD cover:


And then I made one for the dogs. (g)
This is their band's CD cover:


It's kind of addictive! So, what does your band's CD cover look like? ;o)

Donald's Parents' Dog, Soffi

Soffi & the Squeaky Pig from Michael Johansson on Vimeo.

*Another* Doggone Video.

Clearly I'm not worried about running off my poor handful of readers. ;o)


Barking Across Time and Space from Michael Johansson on Vimeo.

Trixie's Speedy Christmas

This is Trixie opening a Christmas present, only she took soooo loooong that I decided to speed it up as fast as my video-editing program would allow. And this is the result. (g) (Don't worry; she did finally manage to get the toy out, with a little help from Donald.)

P.S. The sped-up music may make you want to rip your ears off. You have been warned. ;o)


Trixie's Speedy Christmas from Michael Johansson on Vimeo.