My Dog Locked Me Out of the House

Cuddle Muffin has a slight separation anxiety issue. He's okay alone in the house with Mr.Big, but when Biggie has to go to the vet, I can hear him crying from my driveway.The cats apparently are not worthy of companionship status.

He also gets very excited when his harness is on. As in, leaping around the house, slamming his body into cupboards, almost breaking the glassfronts in doors.

Sunday I harnessed the boys up, and then went out to get the ramp into the car ready for Mr. Big (the elderly gentledog needs a little assistance to get up into so high a vehicle; he has a lovely ramp that he trots happily up and down to do this). I could hear Cuddle Muffin crying with impatience and slamming into things. I hoped the cats were in another room.

I went to go inside, and the door was locked. Cuddle Muffin, in his exuberant jumping and scratching at the door, had locked the deadbolt.

My neighbor has a key to the security door, but not the deadbolt as I only lock that one at night. She'll be getting a copy of the deadbolt key this weekend.

Oh, what happened to me? Only a slight pause while I realized what he had done. Luckily, I had my keys on me, so after the slight pause, I started thanking God I had them on me. I will now not be going outside, even to check the mailbox, without my keys in my hand.

Really he should be called Stinker Muffin.

Black Crowned Night Heron

These birds make me smile. They remind me of little old men. They hunker down, staring motionless into the water, waiting for a fish to swim by, and all evenly spaced about 100 ft apart around the perimeter of the pond. Just like a bunch of fishermen, sitting evenly spaced, poles clutched in their hands, waiting for that first bite. Nobody looks at each other. No one wants to break the spell.

Although this photo dates from last month, the herons were seen again this morning as the boys and I walked by. Mr. Big was eying them, possibly wondering if, in his guise as Pigeon Slayer, he could take one on. I am a mean old biddy, after all, who walks them before breakfast.

Dogs and Rain

The rainy season is always welcome here in the desert, even if it does this to housekeeping efforts:

And I hate housekeeping! Mud puppies + thunderstorms = dirty house. But I love it anyway, the dogs, the mess--it doesn't matter. It's just mud.

Look What We Made

Mother of Mossy and I had only collaborated on one blanket for Project Linus, a pattern called Ship Ahoy. But I know that like me, she probably has tons of leftovers, so I suggested she make some squares and I'd join them-she hates joining. She designed her own rectangle and made me a few dozen in different colors. Here is the second joint effort--squares by MoM, join and edge by Mossy. I think it came out great.

 

This knit blanket used a bulky yarn similar to what the pattern called for, but came out far smaller (I have no idea why). But it's thick and squishy, so hopefully some child or baby will like it.

It's been way too hot here to work on blankets, although I did get one finished last week from some rust-colored ombre boucle that was on clearance at the store. I was hoping that would make a larger blanket than it did, but it's also soft and squishy (sorry, no photo yet; it's in the laundry queue).

Boys on the Bed

Mr. Big Surveys the World

August 30, 2006

Wow, I have the TV cabinet and toy box in the exact same place, and it's five years later. Time to move furniture around and paint.

Shawl Madness

I have recently become obsessed with shawls. Needless to say, at 112 degrees Farenheit out here, there's no need to curl up under a cosy shawl. Unless it starts raining, and the temperature drops 20 degrees, and the air conditioning cools the house down too far. I made a shawl for myself over the new year holiday, and liked it so much, I made my sisters the same shawl. That was the second shawl I ever made (the first was crocheted, Eva's shawl for the pattern; this one was the triangular shawl off the Lion Brand website, if you want to know).

Then I made the mistake of starting to lurk online in the 11 shawls in 2011 forum on Ravelry. As my friend M says "Oh my starts and garters!" (Yes, she really wants to be the stereotypical librarian, even though she would argue against that accusation.) What gorgeousness! These expert knitters and crocheters are making gorgeous lace shawls that are works of art. They are way beyond my skill level, but they did inspire me. So here are two I've made in the past week. I'm working on a third lace-light shawl, and maybe, one day, will work my way up to one of these gorgeous, feather-light pieces that are gossamer thin and lacy.


By the way, the weekly tally now stands at PigeonSlayer 3, Birds 0  A baby mockingbird was the latest casualty (and yes, it was eaten. Ugh.).