Some day, none of these puppies will be mine...

but aren't they superb?

I do love little oddball backstroke boy. Whatever works, I suppose!

Sunday, Puppy Sunday: BIG YAWNZ...

COZ I R SLEEPY!

I will not take a puppy! I will not take a puppy! I will not take a puppy!

This weekend is so chock-full of schnitzel cuteness...

...that we have to have a Saturday, Puppy Saturday this week.

The baby wieners are getting a little more active, a little more feisty.

How sweet is this?

I will not take a puppy. I will not take a puppy. I will not take a puppy.

Barn-Dishing with the Farm Family

...and brandishing as well. *pow!* *pow!*

I'm not insinuating myself into the glory that was Blogorado-- this really happened.

I had a gun blogger party at my apartment in Dallas on January 31, and a lot of fabulous folks came. Peter asked me if I would mind having FarmGirl along to the party. Of course, I joined in the invitation and FarmGirl was a delightful addition to the party. By the end, FG was saying "do you think anyone would come if I had a blogger party?"

Absolutely.

I have to say FarmFamily really pulled out all the stops for us. Blogorado was a fantastic gathering and folks came from all over the country, so there was no question of the willingness of folks to show up to that relatively remote locale.

This whole post is by way of saying an enormous thank you to FarmGirl for planning this event, and to the whole FarmFamily for making it such a warm, memorable occasion.

FarmDad and aepilotJim and Old NFO set up the firing range. FarmDad is this incredibly resourceful fellow who has no end of talent. He made some toe-curlingly delectable salsa (I'll be going to Colorado for more one day soon) and he apparently can replace radiators and I've seen him operating heavy equipment. He is probably too self-effacing to say so, but I'd count him among the precious handful of true Renaissance men I've known in my life. Good man, he.

FarmMom is absolutely golden. There is a lovely golden light about her and I can think of many fine things to say, but among those is my highest praise of just about any person: she makes gravy that'd make you want to slap yer grandma. Actually, I wouldn't slap my grandma because my grandma made gravy just like that. I'm just saying that I believe gravy such as FarmMom's could bring about peace in our time. Her gravy is a work of art. I'm saying FarmMom needs to do a gravy blog. I'm completely objective about this: I know from good gravy. That was good gravy.

Wait. I'm slobbering. Back on track.

Anyway, FarmFamily is comprised of the kindest and best of folks, and I'm honored to have enjoyed their hospitality, and I hope to again, soon, and to return the compliment. I'm deeply grateful to be counted among your distinguished guests, and I thank you for your hospitality.


Cheers, m'dears!

Opportunity missed...

If we'd known, Ambulance Driver could have made some very nice redneck art with his buck butt Sunday night.

Deer Butt Alien Head art is just good clean fun for the whole family. You can get helpful how-tos over here at The Discriminating Explorer.

Driving away from the range at Blogorado, a large buck played havoc with Ambulance Driver's radiator. Since the state wouldn't let him keep the very front end, he might at least have come home with a very inviting door bell holster rendered from the opposite pole.

I rilly want one of these!

My favorite deer carcass crafting tip from the website: Make sure to tie-off the hiney hole.

Charmed!

Speaking of proper disposition of a carcass - I have a brilliant photo of a Sawz-all in action, but it's mebbe too grisly for public display. I wonder if Sarah Brady has a problem with Sawz-alls? A mighty handy tool, imho. Ya gotta love hanging out with well -equipped people.

*****************************

Speaking of charms, this little beaut which belongs to Old NFO was utterly slobber-worthy, don't you agree? Love those grips.

*le sigh*

The big winners for me this weekend were the Colt's Python. I shot one belonging to Old NFO (he has the coolest stuff!) and learned I was right to be so smitten with those things. A Python will remain at the very top of my list of must-haves. Then there was FarmMom's Taurus Judge. I shot the .45 and the .410 shotgun shells from it. FarmMom assures me there's no more satisfying or immediate way of dispatching slithering things. Blasting away at a waterbottle, I was in paroxysms of giddiness seeing a pizza-sized bounce of rocks, soil and pebbles - pretty spectacular.

There's more still to tell, not the least of which will be a post soon in which I'll wax euphoric over FarmMom's cooking (blog, FarmMom, blog!) and of FarmGirl and FarmDad and the whole FarmFamily's gracious hospitality and pure-dee party magic. Will try to do that tomorrow.

Silly Dinosaur!

Leaving town late Friday meant we stopped overnight in Amarillo, which was fine with me. I love Amarillo. We managed to get a few snaps of Stanley Marsh 3's kooky signs around town- always a treat. We'll have to go see the Ramses Legs on highway 27 next time.

Give it up, Dino.

LawDog will give you indigestion. Then he'll cut and shoot his way out of your belly. Srsly. [yes, I know this stripe of dino was herbivorous. Don't spoil my fun.]

On the way up to Blogorado from Amarillo, we stopped at the Cimarron Heritage Museum in Boise City, Oklahoma, having been drawn by this lovely actual-size critter.. We were in a bit of a hurry, but we've made a mental note to stop back through - they've got lots of great stuff to look at there- lots of ephemera from the pioneer days.

Fun stuff.

More to come.

Nut Up or Shut Up

I've got a week's worth of posts in me on the trip up to Blogorado as well as the event itself.

I'm back home in Elsewhere, however, and I am too tired to post much today, so this will have to do.

As you may know, Ambulance Driver hit a large buck on the way from the range Sunday night as we were heading over to FarmFamily's house for dinner. The night before, FarmMom had fried up some appetizers for everyone, and I took one and ate it. Chewy. Springy, even. Hmm. Interesting texture and flavour. Turns out you don't have to go all the way into the Rocky Mountains to sample one of their variety of oyster. They weren't bad, just a little odd. Maybe with a creamy garlic sauce?

Anyhoo, when that lovely buck was lying on the road, I thought his, uh, prognosticles looked soft, furry, so I decided to see for myself.

"Stop abusing that poor dead animal!" someone exhorted in mock outrage.

"I'm not abusing it, I'm respecting it. You must respect the buck nuts" I said in mock reverence. Having eaten another animal's ball the night before, there seemed a toothsome symmetry to fondling this other pair. Book-endish, even. Anyhoo - Christina took a picture.

Anyway, that's prolly the most dull thing you could hear about Blogorado, but tonight, it's all I can give.

Happy Birthday and Thank you to the Marines

And a personal thanks to Steve for his service. I'm proud of you.

Blogorado totally PWNS Broad Ripple action.

If, driving between venues in Broad Ripple blogmeets you should happen to run over a local, you will have a mangled bicycle in your grille and a lot of paperwork with the local authorities and bad feeling with the local hippies.

After hitting a local resident between venues at Blogorado, we have backstrap.

I'm just sayin'...

[addendum - This was not intended as a slight to Broad Ripple, which is a gathering I would dearly love to attend my ownself, but merely to portray the goes-to-11 degree of ossumness that was Blogorado. I have to say that Blogorado totally PWNS the two gunblogger gatherings, I hosted, as well. Farmfamily is uniquely positioned and resourceful to put together an event which few could hope to parallel in any degree. They really hit it out of the park. More on that, soon.

Sunday, Puppy Sunday: Pupcake!

Poor, exploited pup.

So innocent and pure.

His mama misses him.

We've already done the beefcake version. This here's Pupcake.

Bela Lugosi's Dead - Ukelele Style

Gus and Fin are at it again.

If, like me, your teenaged self oozed unctuously around town, too cool for the room, styling to Bauhaus' doom-crooning hit, then you'll love this version.

White on white

translucent black capes

back from the rack...
red velvet lines
the black box...

Oh, the drama!


Clever boys.

Off to a late start...

Life intervened and I'm launching late out of Elsewhere. What bums me is that I'll be driving through my beloved Panhandle after dark. I love the rugged countryside out there. Stirring.

I talked to Farmgirl last night and to Christina tonight, and it sounds as though things at Blogorado are already, well, colorful.

*ahem*

Sounds like a hoot. I can't wait to get there for some shooty goodness. I'm bringing my .22 Browning rifle and also some super collibri for lots of Calamity Phlegm style shooty goodness.

Mm mm good, indeed.
Gotta go paint my nails. Laters.

What kind of bloggery is this?

In which Our Heroine engages in the dropping of the names and other, show-offy sorts of behaviours...

After work today, I'm off to Blogorado where, yeah, I'll be hanging out with FarmGirl and her guests who'll include Atomic Nerds, Breda, Matt G & JPG, Ambulance Driver, Snarky, Christina, AEPilotJim, OldNFO, SnarkyBytes, at least one mystery surprise guest, someone with a .50 cal in tow, and Buck and Roy and the whole Hee Haw gang. And LawDog. Did I mention LawDog? I love mentioning LawDog. Sorely missed will be Peter, who's still on the mend, alas, and Hols who would've added that Southern Belle quality to the occasion which I so love. *le sigh*

FarmFamily killed the fatted calf. Om nom nom.
We're gonna shoot stuff and eat lots of dead cow. Good times!

Facèré Jewelry Art Gallery

Since Zozza closed in Dallas, Facèré is my favorite jewelry store in the US. I've been there one time when visiting friends in Seattle.

I'm loving the gold and blackened steel jewelry by this artist, Peg Fetter--particularly the simple steel rings with the gold wrap.
Find more photos like this on crafthaus


I'm thrilled by the trophy giraffe brooch here, for some reason. This may mean I'm unwell in some way. Cute!

I'm thinking I may need to reward myself sometime in the future... note to self.

Great stuff...