Bye Dad

You have been my dad or almost 97 years.
You've taken good care of your family.
You've been there for all of us, through all our troubles.
Shared our joy over new spouses, new babies, and our babies babies.
I know mom loves you.
Your children love you.
Your grandchildren love you.
Your great granchildren love you.
You will continue to be loved and respected forever.
Thanks for being my dad.
You will be missed more than you can know.

Back to Work

Well, I am back to work at school.

As much as I love summer vacation, winter vacation, spring break, every pro d day, extra days off work, I have to admit that there is something I like about having a more structured day. I think it's the rabid list maker and checker offer in me that it appeals to. Also without a real schedule, I tend to get unruly and get distracted from tasks by sparkly things and start projects on a whim and don't finish. Bad me.
I can even feel my cockles getting warm seeing some of my favourite kids again, just a little taller than the last time I saw them.
A bonus for me this year, is my new high tech, cushy chair...with wheels. It replaced my basic, plain wooden chair. I feel like a queen. Maybe even better. I don't think her throne can go 30 mph down the school hallway. No, I haven't tested this baby out in the corridor, but I can get a feel for it while rolling around my room, from desk to counter, to door, to desk, to counter, to cupboard, to desk....you get the idea.
This promises to be a bright shiny new year.
zzzzoooom

Golden Love

I was going through my old pictures recently and came across some pictures of my previous dog, Monty. Monty was a purebred golden retriever, one of my favourite kinds of dogs. He was smart, loyal, excitable and a great family pet.
As with pretty much every dog, there are some issues. With him it was hot spots. This time of the year, about 11 years ago, we were pulling our hair out, dealing with this.
Hots spots are areas where it gets very itchy and the dog has a mad compulsion to lick and chew it until it is bald, raw and icky. I'm not sure why our dog had them. He was groomed properly, and we were careful not to dry his skin out. We tried changing his diet because too much grain, corn or soy (in so much dog food) can affect some dogs with allergies...it didn't really help. We were told that he was probably sensitive to flea bites....but he was on flea control pills and he didn't have fleas. We tried some creams, and some thing that tasted nasty, supposedly that would prevent any unsavoury behavior involving his mouth and his rear end.(the area where he usually chewed) but once a spot was started, it was almost impossible to stop.
We tried bandaging up the sore areas, but would always find them in a pile when we got home from work, as well as a grumpy and kind of gooey dog. Occasionally we would put the cone of dread on him, when we went out.
It was a little late in the game when he had his first cortisone shot. I think there may have also been a little sorcery involved. That pretty much put a halt to it. I don't know why we were not told about it by our vet at the beginning, but it worked. Having that break in the itching gave the wounds time to heal, and we made sure to keep his diet and flea control on track. Once summer was over, it seemed to go away until the battle began the next summer.

In conclusion, Goldens are almost perfect, except for hot spots....
and the lawn sausages (but all dogs leave those).

Dog Quirks

Beep...beep....beep.......

This is the sound of my dog backing out of the kitchen.
The lure of any kind of food will bring my dog into the kitchen like a lightening bolt. Once she has managed to puppy-dog-eye her way into getting a little piece of whatever I am making, she leaves the room. Backwards. She will not walk right through, but willl turn around and go butt first out the door. She will not walk out face first and starts to panic if you try to make her. I think it's because the floor is tile. Maybe she had a Bambi-on-ice moment when she was a pup.

Possibly related, is her longish toenails. You see, she is a rotti cross, and rotti's are know to have issues with people touching their feet. Sure when she was a pup, we used to purposely touch her feet and trim her nails, in an effort to get her used to it, but one day (no she wasn't hurt) she just decided not to allow it anymore. She pulls her paws away, snarls, cowers, and gives us the evil eye, and I think she also uses the ultimate weapon, passing gas to keep us away. We can try by holding her, or nicely coax her with lots of treats, but no go.



The last time she had them trimmed well, was when she was knocked out getting x rays, after getting her knee surgery last fall. Otherwise, it is just the ends of the longest nails that get trimmed, usually a couple at a time. Our middle daughter has the most success with her.
If you have a rotti, be aware that this is one of their little quirks, they often hate having their feet touched, but if you do it gently and often when they are young, you may have a chance at having less problems when they are older. Didn't work for us, but that's kind of the norm around here.

Happy Birthday Martha

Just saying happy birthday because Martha is an Etsy lover ...yay!!!!! Not going to say how old she is. She's older than me and that's all I care about.
I am going to reprise an earlier post about her, that I wrote.

How Martha Makes a Peanut Butter Sandwich:

1. Grind wheat, make bread dough and bake bread.
2. Get top quality, hard to find, no preservative, hand made by nuns or monks using peanuts too good even for squirrels, peanut buerre.
3. Get jar of last summer's home made strawberry preserves that you slaved over and gave to all your friends instead of gifts at last Christmas.
4. Cut cooled bread into nice thick slices.
5. Generously spread peanut buerre on one piece of bread. Sprinkle nutmeg on top.
6. Spread jam on the other slice of bread. Top with fresh strawberries cut into rose florettes.
7. Arrange bread on an attractive plate, side by side. Top with melted Ghirardeli chocolate and add a sprig of mint on the side of the plate.
8. Enjoy with a friend.

...and a couple of new ones

If Martha Stewart was a zombie:

The Martha Stewart zombie would remove her victims brains (going after only the best quality brains) with her well oiled garden shears, and transport the aquired brains in a hande made brain carrying tote (from Etsy)to her well appointed, beautiful kitchen, and eat them out of custom earthenware brain bowls (from Etsy). They would be delicately seasoned with nutmeg and a touch of lemon for a little extra tang.


The Martha Stewart Computer Virus:

A self made virus, and entrepeneur of a virus. Very curious, and inquisitive. Seeks out files and finds ways to make them more efficient and appealing. Co-ordinates colors of the fonts and images on your screen so that it matches your decor. If found by your anti virus program and put into the vault, it only stays there a short time, and comes back stronger than ever.

I Don't Think Moths Have Any Brains

First of all, when did they start making moths the size of weiner dogs with wings?

At night I'm sitting peacefully watching TV, and then this giant freak of nature comes flying in through the patio doors, and heads straight up to the swirling ceiling fan of death. It ignores the swiftly turning fan blades, somehow mesmerized by the irresistable bright lights attached to the fan. I hear a whhhhthump, turn my head to see what made that loud sound, and see a a torpedo like object come hurling toward my open, gaping mouth. I shut my mouth and get hit on the top of the head by this now un-moth.
I mean really, what are they thinking? If they like the light that much, why don't they come out in the daytime and sleep at night like everyone else? They could be in the sunlight and flit around, fly straight to the sun, and nobody would be the wiser.

Also I had another weird experience a short time later. Well, I didn't know what hit the fan, but I did hear a thump. I walked over to the area didn't see any moth parts. but did see what I thought was one of those candies...a hard striped one called a Humbug, on the floor. I just about picked it up, then thought, "it's probably sticky" so I got a ruler that was nearby and was going to scoop it up. It stuck to the carpet, so I thought, eww somebody had this in their mouth. I got under it a bit more and as I dislodged it, it hissed at me. sssssss ssssssss., and then moved a bit. Serionsly freaking me out. If you ever saw the movie The Mist, well those were the kind of thoughts that started going through my mind. I was hoping it wouldn't suddenly fly at my neck and grab on. It took about 5 flick/scoops to get that thing out of the house. Each time it hissed.


::shudder::

Lesser Known Computer Viruses

These may not be well known, but beware of these!

Old Geezer Virus (in our home it's also known as the "Hey That Sounds Like Me Virus")
-creates faulty memory, and when the computer is asked to retrieve recently input data, the screen goes blank.

Adam Lambert Virus
-your computer creates and ouputs it's own audio files and is always reformatting. Has certain magnetic properties.

- Johnny Depp Virus
- a quirky virus that reacts differently in different applications. Could make your computer moody and dark, or it could attempt to pirate other computers and steal their bandwidth.

- Gordon Ramsey Virus
- a virus that scans files you have created, taking bytes from them and then disables them with harsh HTML.

Tom Cruise Virus
- was a powerhouse virus, but has been self destructive and downgraded to a simple worm, which tries to get other worms to follow it's path. Occasionally makes your screen jump up and down.

- The Sasquatch Virus
-a virus that hides deep in the recesses of your computer and take up lots of disc space, leaving a data trail. Some have said that it can be seen at night, through Windows, but most believe it is a virtual blip.

Message Board Virus
- sends subliminal messages through your computer screen, compelling you to pend unreasonable hours online.