compound

Legacy Writing 365:190

Most of Sunday I tried to bring organization to all these different things that have gotten away from me. Along with bills and correspondence, I’m trying to whip the guest room into shape. It’s been piled high with doll stuff, art stuff, and Christmas gifts to be wrapped (yeah, I know, I know).

With more than 300 dolls, if I don’t keep their whereabouts under control, I might misplace a dog under them or something. We do keep most of the dolls packed in bins in the attic–and some packed away at Tim’s or in the garage, where I’ll have quick access to them if I want them for a photo shoot. Somewhere along the way, I decided to do a kind of Designer’s Look Book to keep up with my models–when I’ve used them, what their model names are, who gave them to me, and technical details about them (face sculpts, for example). I had an extra Moleskine from Marika that I thought would be a good place for this and decorated it accordingly:

When my hard drive died in late 2010, I lost my computer list of all the dolls I have, their photos, and where they’re stored. I had a printed copy, and the photos had been stored on Flickr, so I’ve been re-creating it. Thus my Look Book suddenly turned into a doll inventory book, as well. It’s time-consuming and of course no one could give a flip about it but me, but I do love listing all the dolls’ details, including the ones that were given to me from people’s childhood collections. Those are among the most special dolls of all.

For some reason, all of this made me think about record-keeping in general, and diaries and journals in particular. Groups of people in NYC and London called Cringe have long met and done public readings from their angst-ridden teenage diaries. So here you go.

In other words, I predated Twitter and Facebook by DECADES.

Those names at the end–those are the boys I have crushes on THAT DAY. Because if there’s a week of entries, that list is subject to change daily. Do I remember who these boys were? Oddly, yes. By the way, if any girls from JHS stumble over this, they aren’t your boyfriends. They are some other boys with those same names.

Also, I think y’all should know that when Lynne (and she was “Lynn” then, btw) and I really liked something or someone, our word for it/him was “tuff.”

Penny Has An Adventure

Last night Tom was doing some work on my website on the computer while I read in the living room. Suddenly I heard him say, “Whoa, whoa, WHOA!” I looked up as Penny ran toward me through the dining room with Tom in pursuit. She was practically running on two hind legs, because her front legs were madly clawing at her face.

“What’s wrong with her?” I asked as he caught up with her and held her still.

I’d doled out fresh marrow bones yesterday, and the dogs played bone-exchange with them all day (because the bone another dog has is infinitely better than the one in front of you). Somehow, Penny ended up with one the exact right (or wrong, as the case may be) size to slip over her lower jaw and get caught behind her bottom canine teeth. It was like the lower part of her mouth was wearing a bone bracelet, and she wanted it OFF.

Tom held her while I tried to remove it, and I held her while Tom tried. We weren’t doing anything but putting pressure on her gums and stressing her out. So I texted Tim, who was with some of his canine clients, and let him know we were taking her to VERGI, the emergency vet. Keep in mind that it was exactly two weeks before that Rex was referred to VERGI by our vet for more conclusive tests, and we know how that ended. So neither Tom nor I really wanted to go back, but it had to be done.

VERGI was super busy, but they took her back immediately when we went in. The woman at the front desk even remembered us and asked how Tim was doing, which I thought was really sweet. Penny had to get a shot to sedate her, and it ended up the bone didn’t need to be sawed off; they were able to turn and slowly maneuver it off. Then they gave her another shot to bring her out of it. The vet let us know immediately how she was doing and said it’d be about forty minutes before she was ready to go. When they brought out the final paperwork, we were told that Penny was getting LOTS of kisses from the staff. There’s nothing like hearing that people know what a gem your dog is.

She was pretty stoned when we brought her home and slept hard through the night. Today, no one would ever know it happened. I bought the marrow bones at our grocery store–not realizing they were shorter than the usual ones I buy–because they were a great price. However, that turned into an expensive little lesson, and in the future, I’ll stick to the bones we get from Whole Foods. And I’m NOT going to do as Tom suggests and nickname Penny “Bonehead.”

Bouquet for you

An unusual day for me. It’s not yet nine a.m. and I’ve already caught up on email, read articles about two brilliant women (Nora Ephron and Joan Didion), cooked breakfast and cleaned up the kitchen, and done a spot of editing.

Bless coffee.

Here are some photos straight out of the camera for you from my anniversary flowers from Tom and from a bouquet sent to Tim from Scout’s Honor Board members in sympathy for Rex. Some of the flowers have already faded–there’s beauty in that, too.

In and Out

IN.

A week or so ago–that day I made biscuits–I decided to embark on another culinary adventure. There were only two of us for dinner and three chicken legs in the freezer–just enough for two people (Tom ate two; I wanted only one). Even though I’m not the biggest fan of barbecue, I decided to make my own sauce using half this recipe.

Do you guys save all your extra condiments when you get fast food or takeout? ‘Cause that’s what all these packets are about–I used packets of butter, ketchup, and mustard for my sauce.

After letting it simmer for twenty minutes, I brushed it on the chicken legs after I removed their skin.

Tom’s plate with a garden salad, fresh corn on the cob, and a couple of those biscuits.

He liked the sauce. I think I might use a little less vinegar next time. But we had enough left over that we used it on some ribs we grilled a couple of days later.

and OUT.

Then last week, I went to Kimberly Frost’s signing at Murder By The Book. As usual, she was a crowd pleaser. She was there to sign her new release, All That Falls, the second in her Etherlin series. I’ve been reading it all this week…who can resist a sexy fallen angel?

Kimberly does a lot of world building in the paranormal Etherlin novels, which present serious struggles between Muses, Demons, Angels, and mutated Vampires that could affect all of humanity. But when she was asked about creating the town of Duvall, Texas, for her other series, the Southern Witch novels, I had to laugh. As soon as Kimberly began talking about Tammy Jo Trask’s world, her voice and accent changed dramatically. It was easy to see the affection and connection she feels for and with her main character.

All three Southern Witch books, as well as the novella and first two novels of the Etherlin series, are available from your favorite booksellers.

Baking

Today’s little kitchen adventure: drop biscuits. Not as good as Debby’s, but still, my sister would be proud. No one tell Tom about this. He bakes the biscuits around here, and if he finds out I’m capable, he might stop.

This is one of those weeks when if it’s Monday, it must be Tuesday. I’ll be confused for days. Meanwhile:

Post-Furmination, Guinness wonders what we're naming her new puppy.

Margot wonders: How long can 'fourteen days' really be?

As for this, I say, “Bring it.”

Birthday Animal Tales

Tim’s birthday was Saturday, but he has a busy schedule right now, so we arranged to have his birthday dinner on Friday night. He looks very serious in this photo–almost as if he’s having to balance a bunch of my paintings on his head (more of my genius photo skills at work)–but in fact, it was a fun night filled with plenty of laughter. He, Tom, and I were joined by Lynne, Rhonda, and Lindsey. Sugar was with us, too, and wearing a Cone of Shame because she’s healing from an abrasion to her face, but I didn’t get a photo of her. She seemed to be tormented enough without flashes going off in her face.

Marika had told me that I was to put a unicorn on Tim’s cake:

Done! But Unicorn looks a little nervous.

Probably because the cake was the scene of the movie “Mythical Unicorn, Encroaching Dinosaur.” I’ll let you make up your own plot for that.

Silly animal fun.

Later, Tim returned to his house/dogsitting gig, and Lynne went back to Green Acres. Tom had noticed earlier that Margot had a little blood on her back. The last time this happened to a Compound dog, if you recall, Rex ended up with four staples. So while Rhonda was trying to figure out my most recent bad drawing in Draw Something, and Tom was keeping Lindsey company while she dyed her hair shades of pink, I used a warm washcloth to check out Margot’s back, just to be on the safe side.

EW EW EW. Same thing as Rex. Big wound on her side. The Brides kept me and the rest of the dogs company while Tom took Margot to the ER vet. The staple count this spring: Rex 4, Margot 5.

We think it’s the bougainvillea thorns, so Tom did a thorough pruning job on the branches the next day. Meanwhile, Margot has joined Sugar among the ranks of the Coneheads:

The dogs are sure these things happen to them only when Tim is away working. So they got together with a special T-shirt message for him:

Photo Friday, No. 296 and Legacy Writing 365:146

Current Photo Friday theme: Of House & Home

This is one of the first photos I took with my iPhone when it was new. It’s not fantastic quality, but it’s the picture connected to “Home” in my phone’s address book. Everything I see in the photo says home to me: art on the walls, dog hair on the rug, lots of books, photos of people I love on the far wall, and a table where so many friends and family have shared meals and holidays and birthdays. In this particular photo, there are cards on the table, because it’s the same place we’ve played many games of progressive rummy and Yahtzee through the years. And almost every weekend, a plastic cloth is stretched across that table for Craft Night.

It’s home.

Around The Compound

I’ve had no Internet access, so I’ve been using the down time to write several legacy writing posts (I’m still at least a week behind schedule) to put on the blog when Comcast gets its shit together. Now and then we’ll get service at The Compound and I’ll hurriedly answer or compose emails. But mostly I’ve watched and cleared the DVR of several episodes of the few TV shows I record.

I have some big editing jobs to do, and I could be spending my time on those, but I’m not in the right frame of mind. I’m sure the writers would rather I wait until I can truly focus on their work and not do a half-hearted job.

Also, as a little break from writing about things in the distant past, here are a few photos from Rhonda’s belated birthday celebration last week.

Cupcakes!