Security, Thy Name is A Good Roof

They have finished the roof, and are cleaning up all the nails and old shingles now. I feel safe and dry (till the next hurricane, anyway).

The House is A-Rockin' 'Cause the Roofers are Knockin'

OR "The Pounding! The Pounding!




These images show the progress of the roofers this morning. On the first one you see the Dumpster, someone pounding in the nails from the old roof on the garage, and the old roof on the side of the house.



In the second image, you see the tarpaper (probably not tar or paper these days) and the first rows of new shingles. The man on the roof is about 5'2" and does all the heavy lifting!

Orwell Man

I can't post these copyrighted cartoons, so please go look at them! I like all the AAN contest entry cartoons. I hope you enjoy them too.

Sound and Fury on the Roof

This morning at 6:45 a.m. a truck arrived with the new shingles and so forth for our new roof. Here you see the nude decking. The crew speaks very little English, but when I mentioned "cold water and ice" their faces lit up. I repeated it in Spanish in case some did not get it, and they were very happy with my offer of the use of our bathroom and icewater, which squirts out of our refrigerator door, thank goodness, so I don't have to make up a pitcher of icewater every half an hour.

I think the roof will look nice, but we shall see!

Hair I Am!

I really thought my hair being its natural color would make me look like a sheet with two blue dots in it ... but nooooo! I was thoroughly surprised and pleased to find that even with not one scrap of makeup, as in this photo, I look like a human being!

The first step was removing all that ... red ... which took three hours! Then they used toners and crap to give my hair some tinge of platinum. Well, I liked my hair platinum so much I kept it for a few months. At first I wore makeup to make my features show up, but then I forgot that one day and I looked fine anyway.

Then came the time to let it grow out. I was tired of sitting there with goop on my hair waiting, so I let it grow out. At the end, it was really hard to tell where my natural color started and the platinum ended. The back was darker, but that looked really great.

I thought my hair was going to be white, but it is this lovely blonde-ish color. Redheads tend to have sandy looking white hair.

Patient Doing Well, Thank You for the Cards and Flowers

Chip is now neutered and has had his teeth cleaned at the same time ... no one wants a bad boy with horrible teeth and big balls! Seriously, he came through it just fine, so far. He is being kept quiet (HAHAHA ... as if!) at the vet for the next week and a half.

Then he goes right to the trainer, Jason, to be made into a polite little dog. Better you than me, Jason. Without testosterone to fuel his desires, he will be more easily trained to relate to other dogs as friends and less as S.O.'s*

* Sexual Objects

We Now Return To Our Regular Programming, In Progress

Bear is back to his regular form of entertainment, namely, US. Chip has gone into another world or something, and Bear must have his amusement! Note shredded rope chew toy and avid demand in eyes.

Breakin' In the Dishcloth

The cute factor here is way more than I expected ... and the dishcloth is barely visible draped over the edge of the sink. This is our guest bathroom with a rubber thingie for dish draining, a dish towel and ... Tah Dah! One of the dishcloths I have been knitting. Bear tore a hole in the middle of this one even before I had a chance to weave the ends in :((

I successfully repaired it, but it will forever be scarred.

Washing dishes with this cloth is very interesting. I am accustomed to using a sponge and a scrubbie. The dishcloth is heavier and softly scrubbing. I think I like it!

Flooding Indoors and Out

This afternoon, my pal Nod and I were peacefully watching TV and so on; then I rinsed some dishes in preparation for putting them into the dishwasher. You would think this was a fairly safe activity, but NOOOOOOOOOOO!

Water started flooding out of the cupboard under the sink. We evacuated all the duplicate sponges, scrubbies, dish liquid, rubber gloves, etc. and found that a pipe connection had corroded until ... the magic moment!

Then we said, OK since we can't fix it ourselves, let's wait and call the plumber tomorrow, and meanwhile, go out and get a new faucet. But ... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Water started GUSHING out of the SKY!

You can see by the map that it is one of those Stevie Ray Vaughn days ("It's Floodin' Down in Texas"). Where we are the water runs off into Galveston Bay fairly well and quickly, but upstream ... (EEEEEEEEEEEEK!)

Woman Throws Up Small Dog

I put Chip back in the vet hospital yesterday, giving up the idea that I am capable of routing two active young dogs to keep them apart and keep one of them quiet for weeks. Chipster will be neutered on Wednesday, and kept there until the end of the month, at which time he should be fully healed from his various ills, and will be able to join our pack without restrictions like being tethered to me or shut in a crate/bathroom/bedroom.

I feel a little guilty about sentencing him to more time in the kennel of the animal hospital, but I could not take it any more. So there.

Not Pink at ALL!

My two skeins of Panda Cotton in Lacquer Red arrived in the mail today, and I see that the color is indeed, a deep red-orange (as in "lacquer red"!). I guess the other photos were done with a flash or something, and washed the color out.

Now all I need is the pattern, which should arrive some time soon, and I will begin to knit my very first pair of socks!

Yarn Miracle Dish Rag Tag!

Emily Ivey has a blog called Yarn Miracle. She is fab, of course, and she has set up a knitting swap of dishrags! See details here. I am enjoying knitting and I look forward to this fun contest. YAY Emily!

Inch by Inch, Step by Step

Chip still has some training to go to make him a "good" dog.

But first ... tah dah! today he took his last antibiotic!

On Friday he gets a dose of something to kill the remaining developing heartworms. The adults were all killed two weeks ago. Then, two more weeks of being relatively quiet, then neutering, and teeth cleaning.

Then the real training begins, his socialization. We take Bear to a weekly socialization dog park. Unlike most dog parks, this one is supervised by our trainer, Jason Vasconi. He plays music and all of us wait until he says the word, then we release our dogs. The humans walk in a circle for an hour, and the dogs do what they will. The reason for the circling is that when humans stand still their dogs assume that is a territory formation, and they guard that territory. Moving humans form a large, migrating pack, and all the dogs move along with us. If there are conflicts, Jason breaks them up.

I think back to our dog Gypsy, who never got flea preventative, never got shots that I know of, lived in the back hall, roamed the neighborhood all day long on her own, and who got run over finally. I would never keep a dog in that way any more. I have come to believe dogs cannot be kept outside. They need to be with other animals and people. It is doubly hard on a dog here in a hot climate.

The Chipster

Chip is still under house arrest, and that is not to his liking. He decided to use his crate as a bathroom, so now he is really confined. A plastic travel crate with no liner!

Da Bear

In his rather severe summer haircut Bear is merely a shadow of his furball self.

This Dishcloth is for YOU, Laura!

Yes, Mistakes Were Made, but this is not too bad for a rusty old knitter. Again, a cotton dishcloth, an easy, fast project for me to regain my skills. And no snacking!

A Dishcloth for Esperanza

I was inspired by Ida Keen to start knitting again. It is part of my plan to keep my hands busy so that I cannot eat quite so much.

This is my third dishcloth, and the first with variegated yarn. The pattern was one of those in which each row is unique, so it took a lot of concentration.

Esperanza has a white kitchen but she is thinking of changing the paint color to pastel, maybe lavender. This dishcloth will fit in nicely, I think.

A Rake's Progress

Turns out that old Chipster is Mr. Sex Machine. Our dog trainer says maybe he was used for breeding, and that is the only way he knows how to relate to another dog. It makes life complicated. Bear-ie wants to play, play play ("High Five! Both Hands!"), and Chipper wants to mount excitedly on any end of any dog of any gender, age or condition. So they have their own rooms, and come out to spend time with me (later today, US) in shifts.

Not only is Chip a Rake, he is thin as a rake too. He started coughing on Saturday, and the vet prescribed a steroid to keep his lungs from being congested. He seems to be feeling better today, kinda frisky (which I try to discourage); three more days of antibiotics, seven more days of dwindling prednisone, then another week and a half of forced quietude. Then ... tah-dah! He can go for walks and play, and mount every dog he meets (just kidding, I will try to keep him from doing that).

Hello Mr. Chip!

In a radical change of plans, I brought Chip home today. The vet staff said he was very active in the kennel there, and there were lots of other animals around keeping him worked up. He and Bear tussled and tried to dominate one another (neither won, by the way); now Mr. Chips is in my painting studio, in a small crate. He is supposed to be resting, but I think it is hard for him. He has been keening sorrowfully. (My heart goes out to ya, Chipster, but you have to be quiet for now.)

Bear Tonight

Bear was in a posing mood, as you can see. I will take a photo of Chip on Monday if I remember to bring my camera. Yay, Chip ... as you may already know, he has heartworms and has had to receive the arsenic treatments to kill them. His arsenic injections are finished. Now all he has to do is be a kennel potato for a month :((

He can't come home because Old Bearie will be too wild and get Chip running around like a madman in no time, so I visit Chip every day at the vet. So far I brought him a chew toy, a bed, a blanket, a stuffed squeaker toy, a Kong (which I stuffed with peanut butter flavor stuff and a liver snap). Oh and his own collar that matches Bear's