Tag: compound

The Unbearable Plight-ness of Being Sugar

Friday night, Sugar came with The Brides (and later, Kathy) to eat dinner and help us decorate. While Tim was fulfilling his traditional holiday task of planting angels over windows, he noticed a cobweb hanging from the ceiling. He asked me to toss him one of the dogs’ nearby rope toys to brush it down. As soon as he swung the rope, Sugar jumped to her feet with her most ferocious bark; she’s apparently ever vigilant against air attacks from dog toys. So you can understand the indignity of later having one draped over her head by Lindsey.

It wasn’t a totally bad night for Sugar. One thing she loves is the laser pointer. None of the other dogs care about it at all, but when you say “red dot” to Sugar, she gets a happy, expectant expression. If you actually turn on the laser pointer, she’ll chase it to the point of manic exhaustion.

I figured she was due for some fun, so while she was asleep, I retrieved the laser pointer. Again, no other Compound dog has ever cared, and I asked Tim whether he thought foster dog Penny would. He said he doubted that she’d even notice it, and I agreed with him. But as soon as Penny spied the red dot, she completely snubbed Pixie, with whom she’d been playing, and went after it. This woke up Sugar, and I had to be careful how I pointed the laser to keep them from ramming their heads together in their single-minded pursuit. Meanwhile, Pixie kept looking at my hand as if she were saying, “Here! Don’t you see? Get it at the source!” When Sugar and Penny ignored her, she finally succumbed to peer pressure and began chasing the red dot, too (but her heart wasn’t in it).

Rhonda and Lindsey always said they’d never put clothes on Sugar, but for their super cool holiday card this year, they showed off T-shirts from some of the many concerts they’ve been to. I present Exhibit A:

Do you see Sugar lying there, the most TORMENTED DOG IN THE WORLD, because she’s been forced to wear a Journey concert T-shirt? Well, she comes by that suffering honestly. In Exhibit B: Rhonda on Friday night after Lindsey planted a bow on her chest:

Seconds later, she began curling into the Suffering Sugar™ position.

Hawk like

This is the tree UNdecorated.

I’ve had to watch it like a hawk today, because I think it could be foster dog Penny’s first Christmas tree, and she’s found it very alluring. Can’t wait to see what happens when it’s covered with ornaments!

Every year when we unpack ornaments, I have stories like, “THIS is the one Hamlet and Brutus chewed up” and “Here’s the one Pete pulled off the tree…” Even tangible reminders of when they’re not perfect give us things to smile about when our dogs are gone.


Pretty Penny.

Bit by bit

Yesterday when messing with some Christmas lights, I knocked this off a shelf and it cracked in two places.

It’s a wand, and I’ve repaired it, but can I still cast spells with it? Ha! Fooled you. I don’t cast spells anyway. Trust me, if I did magic, I know which way this wand would point today. I’m looking at you, Washington.

In other wizard-free news, I have a couple of things decorated. Santa’s workshop has reopened for business.

And look! Horses frolicking in the snowy meadow and avoiding ginormous sleigh bells!

This is how I’m displaying my sleigh bells this year. The sleigh reminds me of a little town in Texas called Coventry…

Huh. Maybe I have done magic before.

Now for leftovers

The previous three Thanksgivings, I think we’ve been at Green Acres. Today it was the three of us–and five dogs–at home. On the menu:

Baked hen, dressing, squash casserole, crowder peas, mashed potatoes and gravy, and salad.
ETA: Cranberry sauce.

The Big H and her driver, also known as Rex’s former attorney, came by briefly to drop off a homemade pumpkin pie which was extremely delicious.

I’m thankful for the abundance of good people, dogs, books, and other wonderful things in my life. I’m also thankful that Tim won’t tell anybody that I put the tablecloth wrong side up.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Just a note

If any of you would like to make donations to my Campaign Against Anything Bad at The Compound, I promise that no network will suspend your employment. Also, I will not use the funds to produce a reality show, set up a meth lab, or buy/accept goods made by small children in other countries. (I can’t promise this offer extends to small children in the U.S.)

Hmph.

I had vowed to post more often in this thing, but my recent Computer Catastrophe took the will right out of me. So I’ve been spending more time doing other things–especially outside, since our weather is beautiful right now–and lots of reading. When I’m online, I’m trying to re-create what I can of the world I lost with my dead hard drive. I don’t realize how much I depend on my bookmarks to navigate my way through Interworld, so I’m trying to find those sites again. And I’m restoring my iTunes library–most of which is still on and can be transferred from my old PC, so I’ll just have to throw myself on Apple’s mercy for the very little I’ve purchased since February. Because, dammit, I NEED my Foo Fighters.

Meanwhile, Tom has purchased some crazy-fangled thing that will do our backups FOR US onto an external hard drive. We had an external hard drive for the PC just to avoid a situation like this, but we were a little too complacent about Mac’s reputation for NOT FAILING YOU ABYSMALLY AND LOSING A ZILLION PHOTOS. I’m one of those people who needs to learn the BACK IT UP lesson over and over, apparently, or get something that is smarter than I am (a/k/a the crazy-fangled thing).

Weeks ago, I asked what y’all wanted me to post on here, and I’ve tried to fulfill some of those requests over time. One was a pictorial account of Craft Night. Usually food is involved, but since this past Friday’s repast was without great visual appeal–sandwiches along with chips, crackers, dips, and veggie and fruit platters–I doubt it would be very exciting for you to see it.

However, it also included Pegs David Puterbaugh and actual craft kits he and Lindsey bought at Texas Art Supply, so it seemed like a good time for shooting something other than my computer.

I began the night doing sewing repairs on a beautiful little beaded pillow that a Certain Foster Dog whose initials are Penny thought was a toy. No real harm done. Meanwhile…

 


Lindsey began painting something based on an Amazon review Rhonda shared with us a couple of weeks ago. I’ll save that for Lindsey to post about when she finishes it. 


David, Rhonda, and Tom began making sock puppets from their kit. And Tim was able to create an entire dog out of what our Dyson vacuumed up before David’s arrival. We need to have guests more often to keep this house cleaner.


Puppet One of the Friday Puppets.


The three Puppeteers and their works of staggering genius.


I’m not really sure what’s happening here, but don’t think Tim is unengaged. He’s watching the newly mended pillow, i.e., the Penny magnet, in the study (a/k/a the Lisa Suite).


We waited all night for the cops to bust in and break up Rhonda’s “My First Meth Lab.”

 

Then Lindsey introduced us to the Magical World of Shrinky Dinks. Now YOU might know about Shrinky Dinks, but they were a new experience for me. Here are some of our creations:

 


From upper left to right, part of a star I traced from the official Craft Night Tablecloth, the entire world as created by David, something that started life at my hands as a tomato and ended up as a bedbug, a duck made by Lindsey because, whatever, she’s all talented, an Alabama elephant I traced from my favorite drinking glass, Tom’s right-winged-dingbat as inspired by an e-mail from our friend Denece, and a fabulous wolf created by guess who, the resident artist, Lindsey. 

 

~~The End~~