Tag: compound

Sunday Sundries

Things that are gray. Or grey, as that spelling seems a little more magical than “gray,” and to me, all of these items have magic.


From bottom left, a rat sent by Lisa in Iowa years ago when we had to remove rats from our attic in The Compound amid much drama and mishap. In the end, the rats were gone, the house was secured, and despite it all, there were moments of humor, and Lisa’s rat symbolizes that. It was, in fact, that kind of magic that brought Lisa into our lives when she read the humorous TJB books, wrote us a letter, and a bond was formed. It included a visit to The Compound and meetings at Saints and Sinners, and it endures to this day.

Next up is little Dedo, a gift from me to Tom one year. Dedo is a small gargoyle on the Notre Dame Cathedral who is said to have a protective, caring presence. Dedo is a symbol of kindness and safeguarding. Sounds like Tom. Sometimes when you want to wander across the Internet, look up stories and legends about Dedo and his likenesses.

Then there’s Batman, whose sartorial choice for this look is a gray bodysuit. Through the decades, his bodysuit has had bold colors of several hues, zebra stripes, a mummy bandage look, brown, and black, but most often, he’s in gray. Batman is a symbol of hope and justice. He has no superhuman qualities, but he represents the best of humans in his quest to protect others, disable villains without killing them, and give people a belief in a better future.

An elephant, besides being my college mascot, symbolizes many things in different cultures. A list includes: power, wisdom, loyalty, fertility, strength, high moral character, longevity, stamina, moderation, eternity, memory, vitality, majesty, and intelligence. Speaking of magic, many years ago, over coffee, a professor told me a fact about elephants that made me rethink a certain bias I had, planting a seed that would fully bloom in the 1990s and change my life for good and for better.

Oh, the shark bites…the book. He’s only being playful. I doubt I ever gave any thought to sharks at all until one night when a few of us were hanging out in the lone convenience store in the wee town where I went to high school. (As I recall, the sister of one of my friends worked there, and she didn’t care if we gathered there. There was nothing else to do.) I picked up a book, read the first few pages of Jaws, thought, Eek! Not for me! and put it down. Later, I saw the movie when it came out, loved it (and also ended up loving the novel), and from then on, sharks held a fascination for me. I appreciate seeing them in their natural environment thanks to skilled photographers. I like seeing them in cartoons. They continue to have mystery and, like the elephant, a majesty to me.

Finally, we have what I dub a “melancholy of Eeyores.” In the pantheon of characters who inhabit Hundred Acre Wood, Eeyore seems to have a theme for many people, who think he’s: sad, depressed, pessimistic, downtrodden, negative, gloomy, and hypersensitive. However, he’s also a thinker and a planner. The magic of Eeyore is that he’s greatly loved by his friends. They don’t exclude him, berate him, try to change him, or avoid him. He brings a balance to their group, and they love him without conditions.

Finally, I included the writing prompts book Complete The Story. I feel as if I’ve story-told enough in this post already, so I’ll leave you with the prompt below. Maybe something among the worlds of gargoyles, heroes, and animals pictured will trigger your imagination or a memory that helps you create a story of your own. The story begins…

On the 4th day of the 10-day selfie challenge, I wished I’d never bought a smart phone. The photo of me was innocent enough, but what I accidentally captured in the background opened up a whole world of trouble. I had been walking…

Happy imagining and writing!

A writer’s heart


This resonated with me when I saw it today, and that’s all I’ll say about it.

I hadn’t planned this, but a doctor’s appointment I spontaneously made on Wednesday and was scheduled the same day, led me to a referral to surgery on Thursday, when I had a very minor surgical procedure that went fine, with a follow-up next week to conclude things. Probably the most challenging part to me is the antibiotic I’m on which requires a bland diet and no dairy. I’m already bored with what Debby said is the BRAT diet: bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast (dry). I have no interest in rice by itself. In the mornings, I’m eating oatmeal (I never use milk with it anyway), then for other meals I switch between apple sauce and bananas, and dry toast and saltines. No coffee or tea. Just water and occasionally for a treat, a little cranberry juice. Nurse Debby is handling my four days of dressing changes.

When Tom took his vacation between Christmas and New Year’s, he was finally able to put time into recovering files from the backup drive of a computer that died in early 2020. (We’d misplaced that drive and thought after searching other backup drives that everything was lost.) We weren’t sure that whatever hit the dead computer hadn’t also impacted the contents of the rediscovered drive, but he transferred literally thousands of documents to another external drive. Today, I began accessing some of the contents for the first time.

I feel, like the subject of a previous post, that I’m time traveling, having already sifted through hundreds of personal photos I thought were gone. It’s been surreal, because so many of those photos encompassed our sale of The Compound, our move to Houndstooth Hall, the Harvey flood, the deaths of Margot and Guinness, the new dogs that came into our lives to become Anime’s pack and our little friends–just so many dogs and people and things.

There are photos I don’t remember taking. Places I don’t remember going. For example, I found photos that I think might be from Mark Rothko: A Retrospective in the Beck Building at the Museum of Fine Arts in December 2015. I vaguely remember going to an exhibit in years past, and I have bad photos that inform me this was probably the one. We were in the middle of selling one house, moving into another, it was the holidays, and I was working crazy hours, so I’m not surprised it’s all a blur.

These were a couple of photos I found in my files, probably taken with my phone, that I think were part of that exhibit. I could probably find the first one online if I wanted to do a deep dive in image searching. The second one looks like it’s behind glass, reflecting paintings from another wall, and I’m not sure the colors are true. It could be more of a challenge. Regardless, Rothko’s art always feeds my soul and seems like the perfect way to finish my red-themed week.

Merry Christmas from Houndstooth Hall!


However you choose to celebrate the season or whatever you call your holiday, whether you’re having a solitary day or spending any of it with friends or family of birth or of choice, though it may bring bittersweet memories as well as help you create new ones, I wish you the very best.

And a very happy birthday to Tom today. Here’s a snow photo from December 2009, of Tom walking Margot, Pixie, Rex, and Guinness. We’ve known, loved, and been loved by an abundance of good dogs through the years. They’ve all adored Tom, as do we all.

Purple is for birthdays


Happy birthday to Mark, far away in England. I had an extra cake layer in the freezer, so I defrosted and gave it purple candles so everyone at the Hall can have a slice to celebrate you this evening.


Today is the day our nephew Aaron was born in 1993. Because he often came to see us, he had his own napkin ring among those I painted for family and friends who visited The Compound and shared meals with us. Every wooden ring was painted a different color, and Aaron’s is purple. It’s kept in one of the display cabinets in the Houndstooth Hall living room. We will love and miss Aaron always.


Aaron and Tom in February 2011 celebrating Debby’s birthday along with her, David, Geri, and Timothy.

Tiny Tuesday!


From the book of Tiny Pleasures, I spotted this one:

When I did my recent book purge, I discovered that in the past, I had a tendency to grab whatever was handy to use as a bookmark (despite several posts this year featuring the abundance of bookmarks I own).

Here are a few of the things I found tucked into books I’m rehoming:


Three actual bookmarks: one with an inspirational saying, one from the Doris Day Animal League, to which I was a contributor long before I worked in animal rescue, and one with other state and Texas locations of Half Price Books.

Two business cards, one from the bookstore where I was employed as an assistant manager starting a few months after we moved to Houston, and one promoting The Deal and Three Fortunes In One Cookie, with contact information on the back.

A red ribbon decal that was probably part of a donation appeal from an HIV/AIDS-related organization.

A thank-you card from Amy after she spent a summer living on the second floor of our fifth Houston home (The Compound was our sixth, and Houndstooth Hall is our seventh; between our first and third, we spent the summer of 1990 living with Lynne and Craig. I guess we paid their hospitality forward with Amy; then here at the Hall, Lynne and Minute lived with us for a few weeks between homes). So many good friend memories.

I emailed Amy photos of the message she wrote inside the card, and we reminisced about those times. The envelope is postmarked September 1, 1994, when a postage stamp was 29 cents.

Tiny Tuesday!


In the fall of 2006, a new dog came into our lives, Lynne’s Minute.

Last night, Lynne posted about Minute on her Instagram. In her words: This girl has been with me for 18 years. She has been my reason to go home when it was the last place I wanted to go. She made the house not empty. She has run with a Doberman, a Mastiff, an American bulldog, and a chihuahua. She’s chased squirrels up trees, chewed many harnesses, and rode many miles. Stoic and brave. Not aware she was only 17 pounds of sass. She’s never been one to run off. She always wants to be where I am. Faithful and true. She has come to the end of her watch. I will miss her every day.

This morning, Lynne and Minute said goodbye. We will all miss Minute, too. I like to think I contributed to naming her. I don’t know if I saw a photo or saw her in person, but I said, “She’s no bigger than a minute!” Lynne answered, “That’s what Jess said, too.” It seemed fated that she become Jess’s little sister Minute. For a while, Minute had her own blog. I still go and look at it sometimes. She came into a home with siblings: Greta, the Dowager Doberman, and Little Blind Sparky. They were a great trio. She also became an aunt and best friends with Jess and Laura’s dogs and honestly thought she was the same size as them: Seig, a Doberman, Sue, the American bulldog, and Sam, a HUGE mastiff, and later, Ruby and Ginger. When she welcomed her chihuahua brother Paco to her family, it may have been the first time a family dog was smaller than her!

Lynne’s grandchildren have never known a world without Minute.

Lila with Minute and Paco.

Isaac and Minute, photo courtesy of Lynne.

At The Compound, she was a running mate to our Margot, Guinness, and then Anime; Tim’s Rex, Pixie, Penny, and then Pollock. A friend to Rhonda and Lindsey’s Sugar when they visited. At Houndstooth Hall, she befriended Debby’s Harley and Stewie, and Rhonda and Lindsey’s Pepper when she joined their family. She welcomed Delta, Jack, and Eva into the batpack. Who knows how many of our foster dogs she met through the years, but I never saw her exchange a harsh word with another dog. As far as she was concerned, in the dog world, she never met a stranger. She gave every dog a chance to be a potential new friend, though there was a special bond between her and Anime. But all other dogs she met as equals, and she was their monarch.

Some of her photos through the years.

Timothy with Minute. He often took care of her and her siblings.


One of my first photos of Minute, taken on a baking night in December of 2006. We had a houseful of bakers and assistants at The Compound, giving Minute a big social debut at an early age. No dogs were intoxicated in the making of this photo. That bottle of Jack was for whiskey balls as an experiment with our rum ball recipe.


Rex playing with Minute.


Minute with her brother Sparky, and on the floor, her nephew Seig.


Minute ready to garden with Margot, Sparky, Guinness, and Rex.


One time, when I took care of Sparky and Minute, I had them both bathed and brushed by a groomer. Sparky LOVED it and was invigorated. Minute, who loved nothing better than getting muddy, tolerated it but was outraged that I let them put this silly bow on her. She was a WARRIOR, not a girly girl!


Minute and her little brother Paco.


Besties. Minute and Anime. Even as she aged and slowed down, Minute and Anime would become like playful puppies when they got together again. They were never far from each other.


Jack, Eva, and Minute.


Pepper grabs the couch, while Minute, Anime, and Eva sleep in the distance.


Hard to get them all in one shot, but here’s Delta with Minute, Eva, Jack, and to the far right, Anime.


Tom and Minute on a recent visit.


Sweet and spicy: a blended foursome.


She was a tiny girl, and in honor of Tiny Tuesday, I tried to find the little dog I put on Lynne’s birthday cake in 2007. I never found it. Maybe I gave it to Lynne.

I did unpack these two Birthstone Barbies with their companions.

Miss Sapphire with her Westie. Sapphires represent love, royalty, and protection, and that tracks for Minute on all three counts. On a whim, I checked Miss Topaz, because that’s Lynne’s birth month, and what better dog to be represented than a little tan and white chihuahua. I know Paco was first to greet Minute at the Rainbow Bridge; how he must have missed her. The wild rumpus then began with her many friends at their reunion.

Photo Friday, No. 922

Current Photo Friday theme: Path


Shot at The Compound in December 2007 with my first digital camera, the Kodak Easyshare CX7430 Zoom.

When you’re overwhelmed by details, it can be easy to overlook the obvious. This little path was created when our previous home was being remodeled. Tom, the dogs, and I were staying in the garage apartment while the contractors worked inside the house. A blocked driveway created all kinds of challenges for dog management and access to the apartment. The solution came to me in the middle of the night, and I woke Tom when I said, “A house has two sides.” The next day, he cleared the never-used, overgrown, gated area along the “other” side of the house, and before sunset, he’d created this tidy, easy means to get to the back of the property.