That’s pretty much how it went today. It wasn’t bad, til the Zimmerman verdict (that I expected, but still…) Even my yukky headache eased up after a bit and I got a few things done.
Not a lot, just a few.
But, considering the AC is out in the back of the house — yea, I’ll call that a win.
Except I don’t think tomorrow is going to be much better, even if the AC is repaired.
It’s just a blah kind of time.
On a good note, back to school shopping has begun and I do love office supplies. Heh.
So much work to do.
My house is a mess.
I haven’t read a book in two days.
I’m stuck on some stupid candy crush level that I’m sure I’ll never get passed — only in part because I don’t have time to play.
Lola is a pathetic showgirl with her little cone and her sore belly.
Skeeter is a pathetic poodle because her showgirl is pathetic.
Have I mentioned the house is trashed?
I have to work all weekend. I mean really work all weekend.
I haven’t gotten more than five hours sleep a night in about three weeks. In fact I’ve been lucky to get four hours of sleep a night.
I haven’t done any art journaling in two weeks.
Asshattery abounds.
So do conference calls.
I haven’t called my dad.
Jenn’s called me twice and I’ve had to decline both calls because I was on conference calls with no end to the workday in sight.
I miss JMP.
And Michelle.
And Chris.
And Jenn.
Tired. Very, very tired.
I’m not big on animal stories — particularly those that are fiction but based on a true story and extra particularly those written for kids. They’re just … too much.
So I didn’t expect to love The One and Only Ivan. The only thing it had going for it, in my early opinion, was that it was written by Katherina Applegate (who I really like.)
Turns out, I’m a sucker for books about gorillas and elephants and stray dogs and such. I’m awfully sad that I didn’t go to the Atlanta zoo and see Ivan in person before he passed away. That would have been cool. It also would have been cool if Ivan had really done all of those things to get himself and Ruby to the zoo…
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Chris is a Neil Gaiman fan so I pre-ordered the new book, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, and let Prince J and TW read it. Then I figured what the hell, I’ll read it too — it’s short.
I’m not a huge Gaiman fan (don’t stone me, or anything.) I like him well enough but I’m not a diehard and generally don’t care whether I read his new books or not (though I often do read them — eventually.)
This one, I really really liked. I mean really, REALLY liked. Enough that I could add it to my list of books I wouldn’t mind reading again (that list is very short.)
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Lola Belle was listed as a “Beagle Mix”. We thought she might have some sort of terrier lurking in there (TW was taunting me with Jack Russell because she knows I’m not a fan of the Jack. She also taunted me with the idea that there was chihuahua, too. Not a fan of those.)
Of course we sent in her DNA test and I’ve checked the website pretty much every day to see the progress of the test — except today. I hadn’t had time to check. Just as I was about to take a really important MUST CONCENTRATE phone call, the results email came in (eight days early!) and I was one minute late to my call because I could not manage to dial my passcode properly, lol. For my own dedicated conference call line. Yea. I was distracted.
I made it through my call (thanks, Logan) and yelled for TW to check her email because I was forwarding the results to her, too.
We don’t have another poodle!
We also don’t have much of a beagle (though she has more beagle in her than Skeeter Bess does.)
We have… insert drumroll…
A Bloodhound Miniature Schnauzer Weimaraner mix.
One parent was a Bloodhound, Weimaraner, something else mix and the other parent was a Miniature Schnauzer something else mix.
No pure bloodlines for Lola Belle, the showgirl circus dog.
When digging deeper into what the “something else” mixes might have been, here are the breeds (in order) that might have contributed:
Bouvier des Flandres
Beagle
Afghan Hound
Irish Terrier
Siberian Husky
I’m not seeing the Husky at all. Not even a little. And the Bouvier des Flandres? Huh. Interesting, though she doesn’t seem like much of a herding dog to me. Maybe we’ll have to get HER a dog and see if she tries to herd it?
Now I need the folks who adopted her puppies to contact us so we can tell them their mom is a Bloodhound Miniature Schnauzer Weimaraner mix. (that’s a mouthful… BMSW? That looks kind of kinky, doesn’t it?)
After seeing a lot of glowing reviews for Out of the Easy, I moved this one up higher on my TBR list. TW read it first (of course) and said it was good so I had high hopes, especially since I’m not getting a lot of reading done right now and I needed something to suck me in.
Boy did it. After just a half dozen pages, I was hooked — and I didn’t really put it down until I was finished.
Oddly enough, I was surprised to realize the book was written by the other of Between Shades of Grey (a book we listened to last year, on audio — for the Cybils Challenge.) All too often, YA authors write books that sound just a little too much like the last book (even when the books aren’t sequel) — not this one.
My mother’s a prostitute. Not the filthy, streetwalking kind.
See, you’re hooked, aren’t you?
Out of the Big Easy Read More »
TW kind of made fun of me when she saw I was checking The Midwest Gardener’s Book of Lists out of the library. I shushed her and told her I’d explain later.
She made fun of me again when I picked it up to read, a couple of days ago.
I explained that the AWESOME Stacy Morrison is moving into a new house (which, TW knew) and said that Stacy saw this book and thought of me… because I am the queen of lists, at BlogHer.
It amused me. And, I thought it was interesting. Stacy bought (?) the version for her part of the world and I expect to hear awesome things about her gardening in the weeks/months/years ahead… (Also, go read her post: Eight Days ‘Til Takeoff.) I’m also kind of interested in getting the version for the region I’ll be living after we move away from this godforsaken place. Because, no — gardening isn’t really happening here.
We have my grafted gardenia. We have Elly’s lemon tree. We usually have a tomato plant in the spring, but so far none has shown up this year. Every now and then TW plants some other sort of vegetable in the porch’s built in containers. The yard has … stuff in it, that was here when we arrived. And, that’s all we’re doing.
So this book wasn’t super useful for me. It also became very clear that I know shit about gardening. The lists were fascinating (and you central Ohio people… how’s your deer problem? Seems like it was pretty bad when this book was written… almost an emergency situation or something. sheesh) but overwhelming. I needed more photos. A lot more photos. Or I needed the time and energy to look up every single thing on each of those lists because I literally could not picture about 90% of those plants/shrubs/treets/green things.
I know, I’m hopeless. Cool book, though.
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Lola is a morning dog. She starts whining and barking from her crate somewhere between 5-6am every morning. As soon as she wakes, she wants out and if I’m lucky, she’ll follow me back to bed and lay down with us for awhile. After she licks TW and Skeeter and her own butt for awhile.
If I’m not lucky, she’ll lick her butt for a really long time by which point I’ll be fully awake and annoyed and have to get up. She, however, will stay in bed with TW and Skeeter — happily licking whatever is handy until she falls asleep again.
An hour or so later, she’s up again for real. If I’ve been in the office without her, she’ll cha-cha in like she hasn’t seen me in years and try to lick me all over. I’ll take her out where she will stalk squirrels or ants, whatever is awake along with her.
We’ll come back in — I’ll go back to my desk, she’ll go find a bone or antler and lay down on the quilt in the office and lick whatever’s handy. She might doze a little bit. Maybe. Not for long, though.
And as soon as Skeeter is awake, she’s going full throttle. Skeeter, however, is not.
Skeeter would be more than happy to lay in bed forever and only gets up because TW forces her up. Skeeter would be happy to go outside and pee, sniff for wild things for a minute, and then head right back to bed.
Lola doesn’t understand that. As soon as she sees Skeeter, it’s play time. She runs, expecting Skeeter to chase her. She pounces, expecting Skeeter to snarl and pounce back. She grabs Skeeter’s ear or leg our jowls and Skeeter is not happy about any of this.
It’s too early for this madness, in Skeeter’s opinion.
When they go back in the house, Lola heads straight for the toy bin. She grabs a toy, looks at Skeeter — expecting her to come after it. Nothing. So Lola will take the toy to where Skeeter is laying and plop down next to her, chewing it. Expecting Skeeter to try and take it away. Nothing.
So Lola pulls out the big guns. The bones. Or the antlers.
She’ll go find one and then prance by Skeeter, not looking at her (except looking at her out of the corner of her eye) and that will do it. Skeeter will give in and the chase begins… and everything is fine until about 9pm.
That’s when Lola is DONE and Skeeter is not. That’s when Lola has to be forced out of bed to pee and when Skeeter has to resort to bones and antlers to entice her to play.
I wonder if the two of them will ever get their play schedules in sync?
For a Showgirl, She’s Awfully Chipper in the Mornings Read More »
When I spotted Jake and Lily in the “new” carousel on my library’s website, I decided I wanted to read it. It’s been a zillion years since I read any Jerry Spinelli so it seemed like a good idea. And then I let it sit on my library cart for a good two months before I decided it was now or never (because it’s due back to the library this weekend, lol.)
Super fast read (and I stayed up til midnight to finish it) — while it’s no Maniac Magee, I liked it. I particularly liked Jake and Lily’s grandfather. I also liked that Lily is the twin who gets into trouble while Jake is more laid back and sensible. At least he was until he started hanging out with a gang of boys…
It all works out well and as it should. I liked that, though it seems like odds are slim that Jake’s storyline would have ended quite as well as it did for Ernie… but hey, it was nice.
It took me ages and ages to read this book and I couldn’t figure out what the problem was … YA should not take more than a week to read. Not YA that’s less than 300 pages…. Oh, it’s not YA after all. Which explains thins a bit.
It’s fantasy. Fairy-tale. Mythology. A little steampunk tossed in for good measure. And dark. Very dark.
I bounced around between loving it and hating it and ended up pretty darn satisfied with The Kings and Queens of Roam.
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