Friday, 28 November 2008 at 9:50 am (Babblings)
For our third family night — which Sweetie actually got to participate in because he was home for the holiday three days early! — we watched “Get Smart” — and I’ve been avoiding this one. I’m old enough to remember and love the original series.
I guess I was just in the mood to watch this movie. I was laughing through the whole thing. Loved it! So far, we’re three for three! How long can this last? 
Wednesday, 26 November 2008 at 1:44 pm (Babblings)
This little guy was abandoned at the Pilot truck stop in Roland, Oklahoma some time Sunday night — in below freezing temperatures, in the rain. He was left in a large, open TV box with no lid — read: completely exposed to the cold and rain — next to a garbage barrel.
He’s blind in one eye — it’s shrunken and covered with a cataract — and his other eye isn’t looking that good, either, as it seems to be developing a cataract, too. He has almost no teeth, with only one “fang” on the top. Apparently, the other one fell out or was removed within the past few weeks. His toenails were almost half an inch long, so his feet are pretty deformed. He has allergies, possibly from the fleas — and he has a lot of fleas for such a little guy. He has a heart murmur. And yes, we know all of this because we spent Tuesday morning at the vet’s office. That’s how we also know that he looks like an old dog because he is an old dog, not just because he’s had a hard life. It’s obvious that he’s a “truck dog” — the noises and comings and goings next to a major highway didn’t phase him a bit — and he’s not deaf, not in both ears, anyway — and he settled right down when the truck was moving and doesn’t get motion sickness, thank goodness!
Giving people the benefit of the doubt is another one of the things I’ve been working on. It’s amazing what people will come up with — almost like they’re just set on thinking badly of you, no matter what you do. I’ve been guilty of it myself — too often, I’m sure — and unfortunately my “bad guy” radar often wasn’t engaged when it should have been.
Anyway, in this situation, I’ve had a hard time implementing what I’m hoping will be my new philosophy, and it’s actually taken me over two days to find the good intentions here. But I think I’ve managed it. Any day with a personal victory is a good day.
What’s good about this, you might ask? Well —
He was left in the box where someone would find him, though it was a little off the beaten track, back behind the trucks. As a matter of fact, my Sweetie, ordinarily, wouldn’t even go back there to dump his trash — he’d usually just make a pass through the fuel island. So something niggled him to go back there. Of course, once he saw the little guy — and the fact that the box had no top insured that someone would see him in there — he couldn’t just leave him there. And yes, the company has a “no pets in the trucks” policy — sue us.
In the box with him was a bag of food, two new-looking little bowls, and a new package of flea and tick treatment. Someone went to a lot of trouble to make it easy for a stranger to pick this little guy up and take him home — no stop at the pet store required en route.
What happened? I can only guess. I’m thinking at this point that someone found this guy wandering around, but couldn’t take him home for whatever reason, but didn’t want to leave him out on his own. He’s really not much bigger than a rat. He’s definitely a “lap dog” — he feels that’s where he belongs, so someone gave him a soft spot to sit on a regular basis. And the fact that his nails were so long indicates that he was an “inside” dog and didn’t spend a lot of time on abrasive surfaces that would have worn them down. You can probably see from the pictures that his ears are clear and clean — no mites. While he does have a heart murmur, he doesn’t have heart worm and he doesn’t have intestinal worms, either, which is really saying something. He’s well socialized and has settled right in here — sweet, friendly, cuddly and yet able to let the big German Shepherd know — in no uncertain terms, I might add — that he is not a new chew toy.
Who knows why someone decided a box next to a garbage can was a good way to re-home this dog. We’ve been talking about it since he was found and we’ve come up with dozens of possible scenarios. And I candidly admit my first reaction on hearing about him was to load up the shotgun — for all the good that would do. They’re long gone. But now I’m going to assume they just felt they were out of options. And, seriously, considering the condition of this dog — for whatever reason — could you really look someone in the eye and ask them to take him in?
But he’s warm and happy now, a welcome addition to the family, and he smiles when we call him. “Lucky” is a good fit.
Monday, 24 November 2008 at 2:06 am (Babblings)
A little late, but we’ve been a bit busy lately for some reason. What’s happened to my nice, quiet life?! I know a few people I can blame for this — and I will!
Our second stab at “Family Night” got off to a bit of a rocky start because The Kid didn’t want to do it! He has a membership at Runescape that was expiring the next day and he needed to kill some dragons or burn some logs or something. I admit that I have no clue what he does there –
Tuesday, 11 November 2008 at 8:22 am (Babblings, Taekwondo)
I don’t think my son realized, when he picked this movie for “Family Night,” exactly what he was getting into. Being familiar with the work of David Mamet, I didn’t argue with him, and I think that gave him pause. “Hum, if Mom’s going to actually like this movie — will I?!”
I was pleasantly surprised to find that our little Mom & Pop store had it on their rental shelf. But that’s not necessarily a good thing! Like most of Mamet’s stuff, you really have to watch it more than once, sometimes much more than once, to really “get it.” The dialog, for one thing, can be challenging. And I think this was the case for The Kid, who expected, I’ll wager, a lot of martial arts. Actually, there’s very little fighting in this movie. I can see that we might have to rent it again, or even buy it.
I loved it. It was just what I was hoping it would be — classic Mamet. Plenty of unexpected twists and turns, and a nice fight scene to keep The Kid happy.
A successful “Family Night” at our house!
Monday, 10 November 2008 at 9:05 am (Babblings, Classical Education, Current Read)
In early September, I ordered Don Quixote. More than six weeks later, it finally arrived! I won’t tell you which company I ordered it from. Suffice to say this was my second transaction with them — the second with a problem — so it will probably be my last.
So I’m now ready to read it, and if you are a DQ Dropout, too, why don’t you give it another shot? With the schedule we’ve set up, there will be a long time spent on this book — but you still have plenty of time to catch up!
Sunday, 09 November 2008 at 2:30 pm (101 Things To Do With Vinegar)
If you don’t use fabric softener on your towels, it feels like you’re drying yourself with pine needles. If you do use fabric softener on your towels, they just kind of push the water around ’cause now they’re basically covered with wax! Ah — what to do? What to do?
Use vinegar. Yup. It works. It’s cheap. And it works! Just put the vinegar in your softener dispenser — either the one on the machine or use a little “Downey ball.”
And no — your laundry won’t smell like a pickle. But would that really be a bad thing?
Saturday, 08 November 2008 at 4:17 pm (Crock Pot, Recipes)
I’ve been reading Stephanie’s A Year of CrockPotting and she has inspired me! As a matter of fact, her fajita recipe is in the pot as we type!
I make an awesome beef stew — and I know it’s awesome because my guys said so! But it’s a lot of work and though it’s fabulous, I don’t make it very often because there’s so much browning and sauteeing and deglazing — it takes about an hour to get it into the oven, and then we have to smell that for two or three hours before we can eat it! So the other day I just chopped everything up, threw it in the pot and waited to see what would happen. All I can tell you is that I didn’t make enough of this stuff. It was even more awesome! And a lot easier to do! So — here it is!
