Tag Archives: humor

A Bassett Hound/Siberian Husky Mix

Posted on September 12, 2011 | 153 comments

Good morning everyone!

Mandy, Our Husky-Basset Hound Mix

This is Mandy, a cross between a Bassett Hound and a Siberian Husky.  She is, we believe, unique.  However, at least 17 times since I started this blog someone has found my blog through search engines with queries such as “Bassett Hound/Husky mix.”  Today’s post is for the unnamed people out there who are making such an unusual search.  I only ask one thing in return – please, please put me out of my misery and tell me why you are searching this term!  The suspense is killing me.

But I digress – We usually put the Bassett Hound first when we describe Mandy  because of the shape of her body, which is the distinctive low, looooooong, basset hound shape.

Mandy demonstrating her body length, ie., cruising counters looking for food

Her long body is set upon four very short legs, the front two of which are pigeon-toed.

Mandy sleeping with our old dog, Wooflesnort

Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of Mandy in what I call her “pageant pose” which is where she is standing up straight facing you head on, one pigeon-toed foot slightly in front of the other, but she is quite lady-like when she does that.

Mandy and Mark in the Morning

Her Siberian Husky heritage shows up in her coloring, and her fur.  She has the grey, white and black fur that some Siberian Huskies have.  She also has the softest fur of any dog I have ever petted.  Another Husky feature is her eyes:  she has one blue eye and one brown eye.  Kayla got the best picture of Mandy’s eyes we have so far.

Mandy's close-up

If you look very carefully at her brown eye, you will see that there is a small patch of blue on the left side of the eye.

We acquired Mandy from the Humane Society in a nearby city.  I have told this story in another post (See, The Day Mandy Came Home), but to make a long story short, I was sent with Kayla to get a labrador retriever or golden retriever mix, but Mandy was who I came home with.  She entered our family by way of leading me on three separate chases, with me wearing my Sunday best and heels, inlcuding one exciting chase across a crowded parking lot, before we ever got her home.

Mandy, shortly after we brought her home

She is sweet-tempered and harmless to everyone except possibly Darwin, her erstwhile partner in crime, when he tries to eat her food.  She is incredibly independent and stubborn.  I always attributed that to the Bassett Hound in her, until I learned yesterday that Siberian Huskies are stubborn and independent unless training starts with them at any early age, so she has a double dose.  She also possesses an almost indescribable joie de vivre, an irrepressible joy in just being alive and around us that keeps you smiling (unless you just discovered that she is chewing something important, like your new shoes).

Mandy laughing

Mandy was found by the Humane Society in a dumpster at McDonald’s, foraging for food, and because of that background, we have to keep a close watch on counters, food and trash cans at all times.  She and Darwin between them have scored raw pork chops, cooked steak, bread, ravioli and many other things off of counters and from trashcans.

Mandy and Darwin

She can run like a bat out of h  greased lightn very, very fast.  She escaped twice from our house before she decided she was going to stick with us as her new pack, and once she gets a full head of steam up, she is gone.  I have never seen a dog run so fast.  That speed comes from the Husky side, I guess.  I have never heard of Bassett Hounds doing a lot of running, but I may be wrong.

Mandy with Kayla's Flip-Flops ready to chew!

Because of her independent streak, she really doesn’t care too much what you think of her; therefore one of the nicknames that she has earned is “Bad Dog.”  If you catch Mandy chewing something and take it away and tell her “bad dog,” she looks at you steadily, as if to say, “That is an interesting point of view, but I’d rather have the handkerchief back, please.”

Mandy: Caught with a handkerchief

Those are some of the characteristics of our Bassett Hound/Husky mix.  Please, if you have one of your own, tell us about him or her.  I would be interested to know if there are any others out there and what they are like.  And for heaven’s sake, if you come across this post in response to a search you are making about Bassett Hound/Husky mixes, please leave a comment and let me know why you are interested!  My curiosity will be forever indebted to you.

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

153 Comments

Posted in dogs, working mom

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Cruise (Not!)

Posted on September 9, 2011 | 4 comments

Good morning everyone!

I called my mother the other day from the car, and since Kayla was with me, let her talk.  Kayla was in a chatty mood, so she and Mom chattered away while I was driving.  It reminded me of the first time I can remember them having a lengthy conversation on the phone.

From Print Shop Professional 2.0

It was back during Kayla’s kindergarten year, when we had already moved to where we live now, but were still going to church back in our old town.  On the 30 minute drive back from Wednesday night choir practice and GA’s, I called Mom and let Kayla talk for a while too.  Eventually, Kayla brought the subject around to spending the night at my Mom’s house sometime.  Kayla said something like, “We’ll have to figure out what to do with my Mom and Dad.  I know!  I’ll send them on a cruise.”  I asked how much money she had to use for said cruise, and she proudly told me that she had a dollar she would use.

From Print Shop Professional 2.0

Well, I let Mom and Kayla build castles in the air for a little while, but about the time Kayla started telling Mom what she would bring to wear “next Saturday” when she came over, I felt compelled to interrupt so that Kayla understood this sleep-over was not something that could happen right away.  (Mom lives about a six-hour drive away from us.)  I said gently, while she was still on the phone, “Kayla, I’m sorry, but you can’t spend the night at Grandma Dottie’s this week.”  Without batting an eye, she turned to me, with the phone in her hand, and answered firmly, “Then you ain’t going on no cruise!” and turned her back on me to continue her conversation with my mother.

From Print Shop Professional 2.0

I laughed all the way home.

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

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Posted in Out of the mouths of babes...., working mom

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Lost!

Posted on September 7, 2011 | 6 comments

Good morning everyone!

LOST:

Yes, today he is even crazier than he was in this picture!

The mind of one large, black Labrador Retriever/Great Dane mix named Darwin.  The mind was last seen functioning on Friday morning, September 2, immediately before he was dropped off at the kennel.  It was first noticed missing yesterday, September 6 after he was returned from the kennel.  The kennel does not have said mind, so we can only assume it was lost somewhere in transit. 

If you find Darwin’s mind, please return it immediately.  Doing so will greatly aid the survival of said Darwin, as he is mercilessly harassing both his sisters to play with him, running around the house like crazy, crashing into furniture as he tries to clear corners with paws and legs too big to give him good traction on the wooden floor, chewing everything he can get his mouth on, investigating counters for left-over food and just generally being a nuisance.  At this time, no reward is being offered as we are not sure of the size or effectiveness of said mind should it ever be recovered.

 Your assistance is greatly appreciated.

Have a great day everyone!

 Nancy

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Posted in dogs, On the Home Front, working mom

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Shampoo

Posted on September 6, 2011 | 10 comments

Good morning everyone!

When all's said and done, nothing's better than taking a minute to hug our dog!

I hope all of you had a great weekend, and, for those of us here in the United States, a great Labor Day weekend.

From Print Shop Professional 2.0

Thursday night I went shampoo shopping with Kayla.  I normally do this about once or twice a year to remind myself why I don’t normally do this.  We were in the drug store, and two aisles of hair care products was a bit much for her to process.  I watched her carefully read each label, looking for something, so after about five minutes, I asked her what she was looking for.  She told me she was looking for a shampoo that could make her hair longer.  I explained that there was shampoo that could make your hair curlier, straighter, shinier or fluffier but not longer.  (A lady at the end of the aisle was dying laughing at our conversation.)  FN. 1.

From PrintShop Professional 2.0

Kayla nodded acknowledgement of my words of wisdom, and continued to look.  The first two sets of shampoo and conditioner she picked out were from the left side of the aisle (the “premium hair care products” side.)  I told her to put those back; she asked me why; I explained that I wasn’t going to pay $20 a bottle (each) for shampoo and conditioner.  The third time we had this conversation, I gently picked her up from the floor where she was sitting cross-legged, rotated her 180 degrees and told her that the right side of the aisle was where she needed to look.  That demonstration finally got the point across to her, but she was happy to review the right side of the aisle as thoroughly as she had the left side.

I got excited twice when it appeared we were close to a decision, but then she changed her mind.  It took 30 minutes for her to make her selection.  (For the record, I did let her get a more expensive “premium hair care” product that was a spray on styling aid to reduce frizz.)

From Print Shop Professional 2.0

On the way out, she decided she wanted to try rolling her hair, so we also picked up a set of foam rubber curlers and I promised to roll her hair for her that night after she washed it.  As proof to my friends and family who find it inconceivable that I would ever put a child of mine in curlers, here is the final “wound-up” product.  FN 2.

Kayla investigating moths on the outside window

Front Curlers

I really didn’t expect the curlers to make it through the night, but they did.  She got up earlier than normal to pull them out, and got mad at me when I started brushing through them because it looked like I was pulling the curl out.  I told her to wait a minute, and I would show her some magic.  I pulled the top layer of her hair back into a ponytail, leaving the bottom loose, which revealed a lot of curls, and she was happy.

Final Outcome

This latest round of hair care products better last a while now; I don’t think I’m up for another such excursion for quite a while.

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

FN1.  “To die laughing” is a Southern colloquialism meaning “to laugh as hard as you can.”

FN2.  I had her permission to take the pictures of her in curlers; it seemed fair to ask her before posting them.

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Posted in On the Home Front, Out of the mouths of babes...., working mom

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Odds and Ends

Posted on September 1, 2011 | 8 comments

Good morning everyone!

I just have a little bit of this and a little bit of that to share this morning, so we will be jumping around some.

  • How do you know if you’re absent-minded?

I was, unfortunately, presented with two unmistakable signs this morning that I am, indeed, prone to be absent-minded.  The first was when, after trying on her own for about five minutes, Kayla came to me for help in finding the peanut butter.  After checking behind her on the counter and in the pantry, I suggested that she try the refrigerator, since every once in a while when I am not paying attention to what I am doing, I put the peanut butter in there.  See, Peanut Butter in the Refrigerator.  Sure enough, there it was, on the top shelf.

The second was when I couldn’t find my glasses.  After roaming our bedroom and bathroom and the great room looking everywhere I could think of, I suddenly put my hands up to my face just to be sure I wasn’t looking for my glasses with them already on my face.  (I have done that before.)  To my immense relief, they weren’t there, but the fact that I had to check is very telling.

  •    Free Slushies

Kayla announced at the dinner table the other night that she would be excited when she got to middle school, where “they” have “free slushies for 75 cents.”  She offered to bring one home for each of us, too.

Slushy

  • Mandy

Mandy is still eating interminably slow.  While this is great for blogging in the mornings, it presents many other problems in terms of morning preparations, since she won’t eat unless I am sitting here at the table beside her and she is extremely prone to be distracted.  When Kayla comes out for breakfast, she stops eating.  If Kayla leans down to pet her, she stops eating.  If Tyra wanders by, she stops eating.  If she hears any noise in the kitchen, she stops eating.  I bet a butterfly landing on a branch on the other side of the world would be enough for her to stop eating.  The only saving grace is Darwin; if he is anywhere in the vicinity of her and her food, she will eat faster – apparently Tyra is allowed to take her food away if she chooses (it’s been a while since Tyra has done that), but Darwin, as the junior member of the pack, is decidedly not.  Since he’s asleep and snoring in the den right now, I don’t think she has anything to worry about.

Mandy and Darwin, but not while Mandy is eating!

Have a great day!

Nancy

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Posted in Out of the mouths of babes...., Pets, working mom

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Inventions I Eagerly Await (Or Not) – Update

Posted on August 31, 2011 | 2 comments

Good morning everyone!

At the risk of being labeled a hopeless nerd (I can’t, unfortunately, qualify for geek because my technological level of expertise falls terribly short), I will confess that one of the magazines that I get on my Kindle is Technology Review, which is published by MIT every other month.  It covers technology breakthroughs, and by technology they are not limiting themselves to computers and cell phones, but include breakthroughs in medicine, energy, genetics, automobiles, physics, chemistry and anything else you can think of.  They also manage to present material in a way that a layperson can, for the most part, understand.  One section deals with new inventions, which may not be ready for mass production yet, but at least are up and running with prototypes.

Gadgets Galore!

In steadily working my way through June’s publication, I came across two inventions, one bewildering, one encouraging.

The Withings WIFI scale

We will start with bewildering first.  A company called Withings, whose website is located at www.withings.com, has invented a scale with WiFi capability.  That’s right, this scale will kindly, if you tell it to, post your weight, fat mass and body mass index on your Twitter or Facebook account for you.  To be quite frank, the very last place I wish to share that kind of information about me is on Twitter or Facebook!   Why you would even think that someone would want to do so is beyond me.

To be fair to Withings, the scale will, if you choose, discreetly post such information to more private places, like your smart phone or computer, where only you can see it; I can see some value in that.  Even better, if my doctor’s office would purchase such a scale and link it to my records electronically, I could go to the doctor without ever having to see what my weight is!  (I mean, face it folks, most of us know whether we need to lose weight or not; do we really wish to be constantly reminded every time we need to see the doctor for something like strep throat?)

One of Google's seven self-driving cars

The more encouraging invention is Google’s fleet of seven cars that it has equipped to be able to drive themselves.  It consists of six Toyota Prius’s and one Audi TT.  Some of you may recall that the self driving car is one of the inventions I am eagerly awaiting. ( See, Inventions I Eagerly Await.)  Google has at least managed to create prototypes, although currently they are nowhere near ready for mass production and still require a driver to be able to override the computer system in case it gets confused.  Still, Google has come a long way with these cars.  They have equipped them with video cameras, radar, laser sensors (and of course, Google’s navigation system) so that the computer guiding the car will have a 360 degree view of the road, and be able to orient itself to the direction it is traveling and figure out where it wants to go.  In over 140,000 miles of trials (I think – it may be more now), the cars have had only one accident – and that was when one of them was rear-ended by another car.  In those 140,000 miles, they did require minimum driver intervention once or twice, but at least we are getting closer.  I will watch the evolution of this invention closely so that as soon as they are available and affordable, I can own one.

There is, alas, no word out there regarding the driving vacuum cleaner.  See, Differences Between Men and Women.

Sunrise

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

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Posted in Technology, working mom

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Books: The Adventures of a Thousand Lifetimes

Posted on August 30, 2011 | 6 comments

Good morning everyone!

My designated breakfast spot puts me at a place at our table where I can look over at the 10 bookshelves that line our fireplace, five on each side. 

There are one and a half shelves dedicated to cookbooks.  Anyone who didn’t know me would think that meant that I was extremely interested in cooking.  Those who do know me are rolling on the floor laughing at the thought.  Still, even those of us who cook because it is necessary, not because visions of gourmet meals dance through our heads at night, need a few reference books, which is where the Fannie Farmer Cookbook, the Better Homes and Garden Cookbook and the Joy of Cooking come in.  The rest of the cookbooks are there, I guess, in case I ever desire to elevate cooking from a necessity to a hobby.

DVD Player Photograph from http://www.wikipedia.org

One shelf contains all of our audiovisual equipment, which I would be absolutely unable to use were it not for the universal remote my husband thoughtfully set up for me.   (It’s better than trying to start the stuff on my own, even if the remote does like him better than it does me.  See, The Differences Between Men and Women.)

A Collection of Seven Nero Wolfe Books

The other seven and a half shelves contain adventures from a thousand lifetimes.  On the top shelf is my Nero Wolfe collection (a grand name for the primarily paperback books I have bought over the years of every Nero Wolfe book I could find.)  If you haven’t yet met Nero Wolfe, his right-hand man Archie Goodwin, his exceptional butler and cook, Fritz Brenning, and Theodore Horstmann, the grumpy gardener who tends the orchid collection on the top floor of the brownstone in New York City where they live, I highly recommend you do so.  They are pure fun.

A relief showing Polybius (I think)

I also have books that were written hundreds of years before Jesus’ birth.  My favorite of these, so far, is the history of Rome written by Polybius, a Greek general who was a friend of Scipio Africanus (the Roman general who defeated the Carthaginians in Africa).  Polybius was originally taken as a hostage to Rome, ended up becoming Scipio Africanus’s friend and participating in the Carthaginian campaign, then was allowed to return to Greece.  Polybius believed in telling the facts, and nothing but the facts in the history that he wrote.  He died at the venerable age of 90 when he took a fall from his horse while hunting.  Any ancient writer/general with such a full life deserves to have his book at least sampled.

Cover of The Arms of Nemesis, by Steven Saylor

I also have most of the books written by Steven Saylor, a mystery writer whose mysteries are set in Rome during the lives of Cicero and Julius Caesar, and Colleen McCullough’s fictional series on Rome.   Both series are good; it is interesting how their portrayals of the major historical figures of the era are very different.

Patriot Games, by Tom Clancy

Lest you think we are stuck merely in the ancient world, we also have a set of the Tom Clancy Jack Ryan novels, several books about American history during the American Revolution and its aftermath, and the biographies of several presidents.  My favorite presidents are John Adams and Theodore Roosevelt, and they are well-represented on the shelves in front of me.

Photograph of Theodore Roosevelt

Kayla has a couple of books in this set of bookshelves, but most of hers are in the well-filled five shelf bookcase in her room.  Several of my old science fiction/fantasy favorites are in the fireplace bookshelves, including The Dragon and the George, and James P. Hogan’s Series on the gentle giants of Ganymede, but more of those are in the bookcase in the study that Mark built, and the bookcase in the spare bedroom where I have squirreled away many of my oldest and dearest favorites.  (Most of my science books and Christian books are in the study bookcase also.)

Picture of Edward Gibbon

Oh, and I have an unabridged set of Edward Gibbon’s The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, all six volumes.  I have only managed to read Volume One through from cover to cover, but before I die I intend to make it through Volumes 2 through 6.

Picture of Louisa May Alcott

A very well-worn paperback version of The Three Musketeers is up there, along with several of my childhood favorites by Louisa May Alcott, a small smattering of romance novels and one volume containing the complete works of William Shakespeare.  Willa Cather’s Death Comes to the Archbishop, a favorite of mine, graces a shelf between The Mapmakers and The Neanderthal’s Necklace.

Quill Pen

We take for granted how powerful the written word can be; how it can transport us away from our current life into lands and times far away from where we are now, or even places that never existed, but we wish did.  The written word makes us think, entertains us, stimulates our imagination and introduces us to countless lives and worlds we never would be able to experience otherwise.  Looking at my bookshelves, I am glad to have to have my own small treasury of that magic, and look forward to participating in it for the rest of my life.

I would love to hear about your favorite books and the books on your bookshelves, if you have time to comment.

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

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Posted in Just stuff..., working mom

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You know it’s bad when….

Posted on August 27, 2011 | 2 comments

You know it’s bad when your 9 year old daughter tells you that you need to go ahead and take your nap so that you won’t be so grumpy!  Yes, she really said that, and the sad part is that she was right!

Hope all of you are having a great weekend!

Nancy

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Hazardous Duty: Counted Cross-Stitch

Posted on August 26, 2011 | 2 comments

Good morning everyone!

One of my favorite hobbies is counted cross-stitch.  My friend, Vonda, introduced me to the craft back in college, and I have been doing it ever since.  Counted cross-stitch is a form of embroidery which, strangely enough, uses cross-stitch in order to form pictures.  In counted cross-stitch, you are provided with a chart and a list of colors for your embroidery thread that you use to make a picture. 

Clockwise, from left: Original Picture, Chart, Completed Cross-stitch

So, for example, in the picture above, the post card on the left is the original picture.  On the top of the picture is the chart, where someone patiently translated the original picture into a counted cross-stitch chart.  On the bottom right is the completed counted cross-stitch portrait.   The only thing missing is the list of colors.  The fact that my daughter has not yet taken up this craft is not her fault, but mine – I have a patience problem when it comes to teaching it to her.  Still, one day I hope to have enough patience to work through a project with her.

Part of a series of Christmas Ornaments I made

Just like pixels on a computer screen, a counted cross-stitch chart can be used to make just about any picture that you would want.   That is part of the fascination, because, with the proper chart, I can make everything from small Christmas ornaments, up to large adaptations of works of art, depending on my mood. 

Four Christmas Ornaments I Made

You would not think that such a hobby can be hazardous, but it does have its perils.  Mark and Kayla have long known that if I am working on cross-stitch, and they wish to hug me, they need to approach warily – I have a (possibly bad) habit of storing needles conveniently on my shirt or shirt sleeve while I change thread colors and the unwary person who approaches me for a hug can unfortunately get pricked. 

Plastic Canvas Ornaments, in a "folksy" style

There are a couple of very good cross-stitch magazines produced in the United States, but, owing to the greater popularity of the craft in the United Kingdom as well as their centuries head-start on the topic of embroidery in general – let’s face it, royal women were working on embroidered tapestries and other types of embroidery in the United Kingdom before the Americas were even a rumor in the mind of the European world – the cross-stitch magazines from the United Kingdom are exceptionally good.  Although it is fairly expensive, due to shipping, to subscribe, I do buy some at a book store occasionally.

More complicated cross-stitch ornaments

 The British magazines almost always come with an extra gift, so they are sold in the bookstore wrapped in a plastic cover that includes both the magazine and the extra gift.  Having had the rare chance to go by Barnes & Noble and purchase a couple of new magazines earlier this week, I was anxious yesterday to steal about five minutes to look at them.  I got in a hurry ripping the cover off of one of them, though, and as I did so, the magazine flew out of the plastic towards my face and hit me right below the eye with the bottom corner where it is bound.  It has left a small (vanishingly small) scratch underneath my eye, and a nice straight black and blue line that would elicit inquires were it not for the fact that the circles under my eyes are so dark already it is hard to tell the difference! 

That's the one that got me!

Am I going to let this newly discovered peril stop me from engaging in this craft that I love?  Of course not!  Still, I intend to open cross-stitch magazines a little more carefully in the future.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Nancy

P.S.  Please forgive any typos today – I am trying write this with my daughter playing “scream at my imaginary class as loud as I can” in the same room with me.  This activity does not create ideal conditions for concentration on my part!

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Posted in On the Home Front, working mom

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Random!

Posted on August 25, 2011 | 6 comments

Good morning everyone!

I had trouble focusing this morning, so we will take a break from carefully crafted paragraphs and anecdotes with beginnings, middles and ends, and venture into the realm of randomness.  

1)     You never have a good hair day the same day as an important meeting.

2)     A child possess an innate ability to pick out the most annoying toy in his or her arsenal to play with at any given moment.  Usually, that toy was purchased by someone other than the child’s parents.

3)     Pay day always seems about two days too far away.

4)     Light bulbs always blow in threes, unless you have more than three reserve light bulbs.  Then the light bulbs continue to blow quickly until you have exhausted your reserve and there still is one light out.  

5)     Mid-life female hormones and the antics of a 9-year-old child can be an incendiary combination.

6)  You never run out of spaghetti sauce in your cupboard until the day that spaghetti is your only option for supper.  You think.

7)     The urge to buy something increases in intensity geometrically to the amount of money not available to buy it.

8)     Nothing is certain except death and taxes – and the unpopularity of both.

9)     The Auburn football team always does better as an underdog.  Thank you, Associated Press and Coaches polls!

10)     Is there a limit to the number of shows that can be made about Bigfoot, Nessie and UFO’s?

11)     Reasoning with a recalcitrant computer is counter-productive; shooting it with a shot-gun is therapeutic.

12)     The only time a child will choose the option that you urge him or her to take is the time that you try to use reverse logic.

13)     Everyone is interested in the kitchen from the time supper is served, until the time dinner is over.  Unless you are No-No and Bad Dog – then your interest peaks after dinner is over, when you can illicitly scan table and counter tops for left-over food, and before someone comes to clean the kitchen and takes all those out-of-bound leftovers out of reach.

14)     You can learn to ignore the sound of a dog barking.  You cannot, however, learn to ignore the sensation of a dog standing on your hair to wake you up.

15)     Being a fan of the San Diego Padres and Chargers, Chicago Cubs and Bears and the Washington Redskins since the mid-1970s quickly teaches you not to bet on sports.

16)     I am a very blessed woman.  Thank you Mark and Kayla, my friends and the dogs for making my life wonderful.

Have a great day everyone!

Nancy

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Posted in Cooking, Football, Just stuff..., working mom

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