Um, okay...

If someone has powers of reasoning profound enough to be considered for the most important and long-term judicial appointments in our government, shouldn't they have been smart enough all along not to make blatantly racist statements? Should the POTUS who nominated said bench candidate have to put words in her mouth that he's sure she'd re-word what she said previously? If the candidate was a valid choice to begin with, wouldn't she be capable of speaking for herself?

A judge who has had 4 of 5 of their rulings reversed by higher courts is a terrifying choice for Supreme Court. More terrifying even than the horrors of who is in office for a 4-year term.

Where are we going and why are we in this handbasket?

Ah, country living. *inhale deeply*

My goodness.

Driving home from seeing a moowie (Wolverine. See it!) in nearby city Saturday night, LouLou pulled into town behind a white Corolla. Saw them swerve ahead too late to miss the black plastic garbage sack --oddly weighted, that-- and it rolled along their undercarriage in a clunky fashion and too late for LouLou to miss also straddling the black sack when OMG! it has a white stripe. That's not a black plastic bag.

I fear LouLou will be mighty skunky for the next little bit or so. Must find a carwash with undercarriage action.

The Beelzepups...

...took a minute from their busy Snortal Combat schedule Friday night to pose for a pretty picture. So far we've had no fleas out here in the country, but I do find some frightfully large ticks on them.

Ew.

Have learned country pups have dirtier ears inside than citypups. Goes with the territory, I suppose.

I'm more accomplished than I realized...

From Gunblogger Conspiracy:

NinjaViking http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/957/Belgie/article/detail/865224/2009/05/26/Hevigste-onweer-in-jaren-met-15-000-blikseminslagen-en-hagelstenen-als-tennisballen.dhtml ouch
NinjaViking weather isn’t supposed to be like that
Salamander That one hail ball in the upper right looks like cookie monster lost an eye or something.
pdb “Ook het Waasland kreeg de volle laag. Vooral in Stekene en Sint-Gillis-Waas is er veel schade.”
pdb that’s not a real language!
pdb who are they kidding?
TNProgrammer bork bork bork bork!
NinjaViking Heh heh.
NinjaViking that’s flemish
xyankeeworkshop friggin Klingons
NinjaViking and no, it’s not a real language
TNProgrammer phlegmish?
David phlegmfatale has her own language?
NinjaViking it’s a bastard of english, danish, german and bewilderment



OOK!

Wow!

Happy first birthday to my sweet, nutty little Praline.

And many more.

Remember Jack Horkheimer?

I'm having a great time watching the evenings light up with stars. I saw the first firefly of the year tonight, and I think he was a scout. I hope he'll be followed by millions of others.

The skies are amazing and I'm thrilled to be here every single morning and sunset and night.

I wish Jack Horkheimer was still doing updates on the night sky-- I could use his Cliff Notes version of what I'm looking at. Heck, maybe I'll learn something in spite of myself.

[OldGuy informed me Jack Horkheimer is still about-- there's hope for me, yet! YAYS! Check him out here.]

Shooty Goodness!

Saturday brought some spectacular clouds, as you can see. In the first photo, Matt G is mowing a huge swathe of grass out at the ranch where we were about to shoot. Matt borrowed Holly B's hat which was too small for him, so it sat atop his head. Holly had some nice grackle paper targets and everyone made mince of the little devils. I gave one a couple brutal foot injuries. JPG and LawDog displayed some mad shooty skills, and everyone had a lovely time. Even though I wasn't feeling well and didn't have the stamina for much shooting, it was a beautiful day to be out on the range...

Went into a store on Monday on an errand and ran into a lady who has worked with my mom in Dallas for about 15 or so years. What are the odds?

Chuy is fine and coming along nicely, recovering. Praline has had a huge attitude lately, and I don't know what's up with that. She's thinking Chuy is still a little chump pup and she's the bossy big sissy. We're working on that. Chuy, though shorter, is actually slightly larger, and he's not thrilled with the idea of playing second fiddle. They're learning they neither one are the big dog around the house. *sigh* Can't we all just get along?

Hang Dog

I pulled my flash card out of the camera and it seems I've lost a whole raft of photos. I don't know how I did that, but I'm dismayed. Grrr.

This'll have to do. I had some photos of Praline hanging from her ball when it was stuck up about 5' in chainlink fence. THIS is why I should have named her mandible. When she's being thus held aloft, she begins to corkscrew her body in attempt to wrest free the ball from the offending hand. Trust me when I say she can hold onto the ball longer than you can hold her up in the air.

Maniac.

The weekend was great, despite feeling puny. I haven't been feeling terrific, but I haven't felt dramatically diminished in stamina generally. It took a shooting expedition Saturday to bring home the fact that I'm actually quite weak at the moment. I'm taking my meds religiously, and looking forward to being utterly rid of the crud. Being sick is no fun.

OTOH, for being sick, I sure am having a grand time. The sunsets here are spectacular, and I got some fabulous photos in the yard on Sunday of new lobes of cactus with their soft spines doing a turn as sundials. Also, I got a nice photo of a rose which was planted here by someone a few decades back. Quite lovely. Then there was the wasp nest I spotted in the middle of a large stand of cactus. This camera is amazing.

The pups are hale and hardy, tearing about like little racehorses. They love it here. Every day is an adventure for them and they love the yard and seem happy all the time. Life is sweet.

Memorial Day

We are indebted to the men and women who have died keeping us free. May they all be eternally blessed.

I'm not superstitious or easily creeped out, but...

Driving in a rural area Saturday night, I noticed many of the graves in a backwoods cemetery were festooned with those solar-powered lights. You know the ones that give of a pale, anemic glow? Well, I thought the scattershot illuminated gravestones looked kind of eerie, actually. I wonder what people are thinking these days?

Weird? I think so.
Icky? Definitely.

All at once the clouds are parted

light streams down in bright unbroken beams...

Sorry I didn't throw a post up earlier Friday. I've sort of chalked up the rundown feeling to the stressors of the move and the rattlesnake bite and all that lovely magic. Really, though, moving is just stressful whether it's across the street or across the country. It takes a while to get settled, and for all my running around and goings-on, I'm a home-body at heart. I need a peaceful and (believe it or not) somewhat tidy place to hang my hat. I've been sleeping very well, but I've had a persisitent cough. Fortunately for me, someone who cares for my wellbeing has been just as persistent in urging me to see a doctor for the last month.

Today I finally went to a clinic after work, 9 days of Levaquin having not had much effect on this evil, chest-deep cough. Xrays show I have a lot of lung congestion (they wouldn't say pneumonia because they were not radiologists, but I expect a call).

I had a rocephrin shot and they gave me 4 scrips to boot. In truth, before the shot, I sat in the exam room and sort of boo-hooed a bit. I'm so happy here and most things are going so well, but it seems I've had to juggle some very difficult issues lately. So I had my little cry and I pulled it together. I'm told my lip was quivering when I emerged to settle up at the desk, but I saw no such thing. Anyway. I've got my meds and some dear, wonderful people here supporting me, and life is good.

I walked out of the clinic knowing I was on the path to a healthier me, and I looked up to see a double-rainbow.

It's all fine and it's so good now. :)

Have a great holiday weekend, folks!

be your dog's best fiend.

Yeah. Fiend.

From the land of Monsieur Guillotine comes this pet-warshing wossname. 30 minutes in this pet-spa contraption, and your pooch will be traumatized for life. Their fur will be sweet and clean, but they may lay a wet, sloppy trail of timber tearing out of this thing, and rightly so.

About a minute and a half into the video, they pop a cat in the warsh, and it looks plenty steamed, alright. I'm not so sure about this thingie. I'd probably feel guilty about the clothes tumbling in the dryer if I knew they were looking out at me, blaming me. Plotting.

Looks like I'll be sticking with the old-fashioned method-- pups jumping in the bathtub with me. *shrug*

h/t to Blowfuzzy von Saucy

Like school in the summer: no class!

That's my favorite Fat Albert quote, in case you were wondering.

I don't know if I've mentioned lately but I don't watch tv and only just recently acquired a small one which I might actually plug in one of these days, except it's not HD and, oh, heck. Whatever.
I've been pretty busy of late and on the odd moments I do stop to sit down, well, I'll be honest-- I do my blog update just before bed every night and set it up to post at one minute after midnight. I'm usually arrayed pretty comfortably in cotton pajama pants and a camisole top. I know-- not sexy, but there it is. Anyhoo, yeah, it's a casual affair by the time I'm sitting at the computer. This casual habit has lived to bite your humble narrator on the butt.

I'm in my third of about a dozen weeks of training at the new job. If I should stay with this company, I'd like to promote quickly, and to that end, I dress nicely on a daily basis and am meticulous about communications, punctuality, and all that sort of thing. Yes, I'm dressed nicely whereas a lot of folks there are barely out of their own pajamas. This prim and proper thing is all very well, but one hates to go overboard.

I had an horrifyingly embarrassing incident on Wednesday which actually wrapped plumb back around to stunned bewilderment. In my defense, I still have been feeling sicky, and I think perhaps I am a little too comfortable sitting at a computer for professional purposes. In the afternoon, I and the other 6 folks in the room were sitting at computers, each working silently on various tasks. In one of the most surreal moments of my life, I found myself sitting at my computer and suddenly realizing I had belched quite loudly. (I know! Who knew I could belch? I certainly didn't! ;) It probably will never happen again.)

This was a 4.0 magnitude belch, my dears. This belch had its own zip code. This belch could run a paper route. I sat amazed as I heard the echoes report around the room. I thought to myself "did I just do that? No. Surely not." Just in case though, I quietly said "excuse me."

That's when the room erupted. The instructor yelled out "good LORD, Rita! Was that you? Do you need some rolaids or sumpin?" Oh, the humanity. I'm never going to hear the end of this.

You can dress me up, but you can't take me anywhere. I'm classy that way.

Rattlesnake Vaccine for dogs - fyi

Since my experience with Chuy last week, I've not had a lot of time to research, but I have found this bit of information on rattlesnake vaccination for dogs. The slideshow is tedious, but the transcripts were informative and full of useful information.

Until Chuy was bitten, I had no idea vaccination to help prepare your pet for rattler venom even existed. Praline has had her first injection Saturday and will get another in about a month. The local vet is charging $20 each for those, and I'll have to administer the second myself. Chuy will get his first injection around that time.

I've no intention of seeming a one-note symphony these days, but this subject is in the fore for me now. Just the anti-venom shot for Chuy was $450, with several hundred more in care due for all the tests, IVs, etc. I'm given to understand that the anti-venom shot is not even available in some clinics because it has a short shelf-life and may spoil unused, the expense of which would have to be passed along to a clinic's patients for other treatments. Other clinics are charging $800 or more per dose. This makes me think that-- heaven forbid-- should one of my dogs get bitten by a rattler on a Sunday afternoon, I may not even be able to find a vet who has anti-venom and will show up for emergencies. My hope is simply to lessen the severity of any future snakebites.

Anyhoo, the whole point of this is for my friends who live in or near rattler country who have semi-outdoor dogs, you really need to look into getting this vaccine for your pet. Just my humble opinion and probably worth what you paid for it. I just wish I'd known when I moved here that such a thing existed. I'm staying on my toes on this one.