Dog Thursday and Einstein

Guess who is keeping one of the puppies? Yep, me! How in the world could I resist that teensy little face? And he is so sweet! In two weeks, he should be old enough to start basic training and I can't wait. I love watching the little guys learn things. Now I just have to decide whether to keep his nickname or change it. Oh, and the cute little dot on top of his head is called a Haggerty Spot; A Mr. Haggerty was one of the first Boston breeders and early on the spot indicated a dog from one of his litters.

You can check on this page if you want to see more pictures of Einstein and his sisters and brother.

Dogs on Thursday

Sorry I missed out on the last week or so, but I've been way busy. The picture above is of our 5-week-old Boston puppies. Left to right are: Einstein, Eva, Elvis, and Emaline. Aren't they cute!

Here is their first bath, complete with little rubber duckies!

My Satirical Little Rant

I couldn't help myself on this one. My uncle died one year ago tomorrow and his 'wife' - if you can really call her that, since she moved out of his house and out of the county a full year before he died, refusing to grant him a divorce only because she was after his inheritance - put a sappy Bullsh*t memorial in the paper today. The hussy had two reasons for doing it: 1. to try and make my grandparents think she cares because she has her eyes on their bank account and 2. because she knew how much it would piss off my mom, my cousin, and myself. The poem I just finished that follows says it all. My uncle, whom I loved despite his problems, would have gotten a kick out of it. Here's to you, Tom-Tom.

To My Uncle’s ‘Wife’
by Tina Hayes

You put a memorial in the paper
Since he died one year ago.
But there’s something that I truly think
Its readers ought to know.

He left one lovely daughter,
Though estranged, there was much love,
And a beautiful granddaughter
That you made no mention of.

He fought some demons in his life,
That cannot be denied.
But the worst act that he ever did
Was making you his bride.

You extol upon the virtues
We know you don’t possess.
You claim to “love and miss him”
But you couldn’t have cared much less.

Separated a year before
He passed from here on Earth,
You kept your claws sunk in him,
Seeking all his worth.

You scheme, lie, and manipulate
But his family's not deceived.
Blood ties are the strongest,
We’re the ones bereaved.

You need to stop your dig for gold.
There seems to be a glitch.
We know just what you’re up to,
You sanctimonious bitch.

Weather Underground, Check this out!

I just found this site and thought it was kind of cool. On the Weather Underground mainpage, type in your zip code or the location you want in the box in the upper left hand corner of the screen. It will bring up your current conditions, show radar for your area, give a 5-day forecast, and if you ever wondered what your latitude and longitude were, well it tells you that, too, right on the upper right. I thought it was pretty interesting.

If you are in to Astronomy, just scroll down toward the bottom of your local page. It tells you the length of daylight, what time you will be able to see the moon, etc. There is a moon chart that shows what the current moon phase is and when the other phases will occur. If you want to go star gazing, just click on 'View Full Star Chart', located under the moon chart. It will take you to a page that you can print out, which shows all the constellations that should be visible in your town tonight!

Want to find out what the weather was like in a certain location on a particular date in history? The 'History' section will do it. Kind of cool to be able to see what the weather was like the day your Great-great-grandpa was born!

This site also has a Trip Planner, so you can plan for the weather conditions that will occur on your next vacation.

Scorpion Pops

Just in case any of y'all wondered what a Scorpion Pop looked like, well there ya go! We went back yesterday for the last day of the West Side Nut Club Fall Festival, and Tyler had to get one in blueberry flavor! The button came with it, and he sure did like the attention he got wearing it, as a lot of the people working at the boothes we stopped at would say, "You ate a WHAT?!" Who would have guessed a 12-year-old boy would have loved the gross out factor!! LOL Buttons also came with the "Icky Licker" [cricket sucker] and Barry's "Gator Tator" from Monday night. Did I mention how glad I am to be a vegetarian!

We had a heck of a busy week around here. Two trips to the fall festival, dentist appointments, homeschooling, puppies, visitors, and on and on. But most all of it was enjoyable. Friday we got to go a nice banquet for Lantrip's East/West Karate, where Tyler is currently an orange belt.

In knitting news, I'm having fun working on those Monkey socks in my very first Kool-aid dyed yarn. That is a great pattern! The cardigan I'm working on is kinda BORING right now, though. The back is knit first so it is slow going, and row after row of stockinette is just not too interesting. The front has two really pretty sections on it, and there will be a fancy edging added all around the bottom, front, and to the sleeves, but that isn't until after the whole thing is put together. I'm looking forward to starting my lace project for the 'Do Something New KAL' with the mossy sage green yarn I dyed last week.

I hope y'all have a fun weekend!!

West Side Nut Club Fall Festival!!

The first fun thing that happens around here in October is the West Side Nut Club Fall Festival in Evansville, Indiana. (Click on the link to find out all about it) It is supposed to be the 2nd largest street fair in the country, second only to Mardi Gras, and lasts for a whole week. People are everywhere, they have different types of entertainment passing thru the stage area, parades, carnival type games, and rides. My favorite part is the food! My mouth waters just thinking about it! We went Monday night and plan to go back this Saturday.

Blocks and blocks are lined on each side with food venders selling any kind of food you can imagine. I had a portabella fajita, fried pickle spears with marinara, sliced caramel apples, and a frozen banana with chocolate and cherry sauce. Some of my bunch tried some of the wierd things they had, like my husband had a 'gator tater' which was a baked potato with bar-b-qued alligator meat, cheese, and sour cream on it; I thought it smelled like vomit and was, oh, so glad I'm a vegetarian!! My 12-year-old boy followed his pizza burger with a 'icky licker', which was a sucker with a cricket purposely embedded in the center! They also sold scorpion pops, which I think he's gonna try when we go back Saturday. My girls ate 'normal people food' like vegetarian corndogs and big pretzels. Seriously, the food there is just amazing and they sell nearly anything imaginable.

Yesterday I dyed that lace weight yarn pretty darn close to the mossy green color I was after, and even achieved the sort of mottled effect I was trying for. I'm not such which of the things I tried actually caused it, but it worked, so that is fine with me. It took me about an hour all together. First, I made the worlds strongest coffee and brewed three teabags, poured the strong mess into a bowl, and soaked the yarn for about 10 minutes before nuking it in the microwave for three 2-minute intervals. That made a really nice shade of dark tan. Then I mixed 6 packets of Lemon-lime Kool-aid - which is really neonish, if you know what I mean - and diluted it with a large amount of the coffee I had drained off the yarn, then renuked it a few times. Then I drained it and poured the rest of the coffee tea mixture over the top of it and let it set a few minutes; I think this is how I got the slight varigation. I rinsed it off, but I wanted it a bit darker, so I mixed a little more fresh coffee and tea, to which I added about 2 tablespoons of ground sage, then I soaked the yarn in it and renuked it three more times. I think the sage helped the color deepen, but I'm not sure. After using a mild soap and rinsing it off, I hung it up to dry overnight, and balled it up this morning. The sage made it kind of gritty and took a while to rinse it off, then when I was using the ball winder, I think the rest of the residue came off, since there was a sort of dark green sage dandruff all around it, but I couldn't feel any on the yarn after that. I think it is a pretty nice sagey moss color. I can't wait to see how it knits up, as this will be my first time knitting with lace weight yarn.