done thinking

i've always thought atticus has expressive eyes.

sometimes sad, sometimes worried, sometimes inquisitive....

and sometimes they're just plain happy.

"screw the hippies!!!" ~ m.w. 1147

reasonable expectations

i've been thinking about reasonable expectations a lot recently. basically, is what i expect or what i think right truly reasonable?

for example, i think its a totally reasonable expectation to be able to walk my dog and NOT find a chicken bone on the ground. or thrown in the bushes etc. due to the overwhelming instances in which atticus has stuck his head in the bushes and come out with a chicken bone (or breadstick etc), apparently i am wrong. the rate of this occuring has shaken my foundation a little on other things which i previously thought reasonable.

and they may be generic things: like honesty, integrity, etc. having people not afraid to voice their opinions or tell me what they feel. being able to trust that a confidence will stay a confidence. or it could be something along the lines of the above: things like people putting their trash IN a garbage can, not throwing their beer cans out the window, and on and on. but still. is what i think unreasonable?

its all rhetorical really. i'll never get my questions answered. but its something i think about.

"love is a croc." ~ a batman cartoon title

and it goes on

i love blog comments. they're fun. thanks. :)

dont really have anything witty or highly observant to say tonight. i did feel cool at work when 3 times i had information ready for a certain difficult-to-please person. i could tell by their voice they were impressed. wont ever hear about it, but there you go. awesome.

i'm also wondering a little if atticus is eating my fried zucchini because it tastes good or because it just tastes better than dog food. i'll ponder on that awhile. i gave him like 6 slices because i was too lazy to put them in the fridge, and he ate all of them plus he licked the crumbs at the bottom of the container. and mind you, he had dog food sitting in his dish at his convenience. hmm...

now that i found out i can buy tastycakes by the case online i'm not worried about eating the rest of my stash. mmm...cupcakes, krimpets....



demon dog, staking his claim in the kitchen.

haha...kidding. its just a bad picture of atticus in mid yawn. he does sleep on the rug though - apparently he doesn't like laying on linoleum....he'll curl up on any one of the rugs in the kitchen or in the entry way and sleep like that.

super tired again. my schedule is working backwards this week. monday through friday my start times are: 2pm, 12 noon, 10am, 8am, 8am. while really it only knocks 2 hours off my normal routine every day its still tiring. tomorrow is wednesday. 10am here i come...

"the best thing you can do for your children is teach them not to hate." ~jerry springer

observations

a couple of observations from today...

since when can't you ship alcohol to people? i got shot down by usps & ups. what in the world. now i have to unwrap katie's christmas present and redo everything. argh.

flat rate shipping makes no sense. i paid less to send 4 or 5 satchets in a flat rate box than to send 2 in a regular box. riddle me that one batman.

i appreciate people who can get my hidden message without winking to say "yes, i got your hidden message" or otherwise being stupid about it. maybe i should say: God bless maturity.

i am growing up. to explain: i had to listen to an a 23 going on 14 year old coworker prattle on about who knows what and it didn't bother me like it normally does. normally in my head i am yelling "oh grow up!". but instead, i treated her kind of like my 7 year old niece: i waited until she was done with her drama, i said "thats cool", and i immediately forgot about it. (until of course i had to come up with a list of things to write about for this).

i have to be honest, the shirt i am wearing is too big. while in goodwill i made a dozen back and forth arguments with myself for buying vs not buying it. buying it obviously won. today, i realize, yes, it IS too big. but, i definately think i'll wear it again. its soft and comfortable, and it buttons at the right spot (normally buttons are either too high and i look like a school marm, or too low and i look like i'm trying too hard).

i hate drunk drivers. a friend/coworker was hit by a drunk driver on monday night. shes fine, but dealing with the headaches of insurance companies etc. but yeah, i really hate drunk drivers. i hate them more because of my line of work. i find it ironic that someone who was reported as dui later hit a dispatcher head-on. every one ever caught DUI needs to sit on a victims panel. every single one of them need to take 911 calls with people literally dying in the background because they were hit by a drunk driver. chaps my hide is what it does.

i joke a lot about how washingtonians need as many words for rain as eskimos do for snow. todays rain would have described a cold and moderately heavy rain. brrr..... i tried to take a video of the sound of the rain on the tin roofs outside (that we park our cars under), but i couldn't send the file to myself (from phone to computer) because it was too big. i could post it to youtube and somehow get it that way, but thats over my head. so, because i can't share it, i'll describe it: it was a nice, sleepy sound. made me want to go to bed. and because i couldn't share the video, i'll share a picture of atticus after walking for 30 minutes in the rain:

not the best picture, considering what i had to work with, but there you have it. plus you can see part of my totally awesome winter welcome mat. attie is sitting on the snowman part.

i love burger king's zesty sauce. it is absolutely delicious. i love dipping french fries into it. thats my newest craving....burger king zesty sauce and french fries. weird.

today a friend described me to another person as "super, non-felon, non-hippie, and although she really likes extra pickles with her cheeseburgers, hes never found it to be a disability of any sort." i need to figure out a place to post that other than this blog. it made me laugh and laugh and laugh.

i have been in washington too long when twice in one week i run into non-work people i know while running errands. i didn't think i knew people other than from work?!? well, apparently i do. and they inhabit the post office and the grocery store.

my brain has finally started to shift to a lower gear. it only took 90 minutes after i got off work for it to stop running full speed. now its time for sleep.

"i suppose our capacity for self-delusion is boundless." ~ john steinbeck

sunday

today is my sunday. this is what happens when you dont have a typical 9-5 job. but in reality, sundays go by so fast, no matter what day of the week they're on.

but i did get some things done today:

these are all mostly extras. today i finished 2 vanilla, 2 mango, and 2 pink grapefruit. now i'm deciding what to do with them. i even went so far as to attach labels to them, indicating their scent. now i dont have to keep them separated.

i finished margaret's birthday present (not pictured).

and i made this....

its a totally awesome "little bag of secrets!". inspired by penelope waits. i plan to put sarah's hearts in it, just for giggles. it was a fun little bag to make (a bit time consuming), but it turned out so cute. i wish i could take better pictures, these dont due it justice.

i also made fried zucchini & tomato sandwiches for dinner. inspired by nate hengst, but tweeked into something made more for me.

back to work tomorrow. for those of you wondering, it IS possible to work 4 different shifts in a week. (which is exactly what awaits me this week!)

"what is it about silence that makes people uneasy? why do people only feel comfortable when they're filling the air with words?" ~ morrie schwartz

today

i had a good day today. that sounds pretty simple. but its true. i finally finished my friend katie's christmas present (which i will post sometime after i send it to her) & shopping for her (yes, i said christmas, i'm a horrible friend), saw a movie with my friend marka, and then made some more things!

i think i needed the girl time. we saw "its complicated", which i think is really a comedy more for the middle aged crowd, but it was still funny. i laughed at marka's laughing as much as i laughed at the movie. i left the theater feeling like a big weight had lifted off my shoulders. what that weight was i dont know. i just know it wasn't there anymore. it felt great!

it was fun shopping today as well. i went to joanns intending on just getting a bias tape maker:

(look like instruments of torture)

and (of course?) ended up getting much more. including this wonderful stuff.

i used her great idea, a little hocus pocus (read, rice & oil)....

a little patience and thread, and ended up with these!

drawer & closet satchets! they smell yummy! i made melon, coconut, and black raspberry. the black raspberry ones are my favorite, and i will be sending those to my college friend, sarah, who lives all the way down in texas. basically because she has 3 boys and a husband and probably never gets anything girly. and because shes sarah! i started a heart garland for sarah too, but i dont know if i like it. its not turning out right and its extremely time consuming. i figured i'd step away for a day or so and then get back to it. we'll see. before we know it, valentines day will be here and i will be sending yet another belated package.

anyways, i'm currently relaxing with one of these:

and one of these:

have a happy wednesday!

"you gotta laugh. if you dont laugh you start crying." ~professor ron collymore

cooking for atticus

i know its weird, but i've discovered i'd rather cook for atticus than myself. maybe cause i'm happy with just a sandwich and feel like i have better things to do than spend time cooking for one, i dont know. but i do know i've spent more time in the last month cooking for my dog and other people's dogs than i have for myself.

last night i tried out something i read about in my non-biscuit cooking-for-dogs cookbook. its a simple idea really: dogs can eat nutritious things people eat. amazing!! i tried it out, mainly thinking that even if atticus doesn't like rice, veggies, and chicken (oh, who am i kidding with the chicken), at least i'll eat it. so i went to work cooking. well, "work" because i have a rice cooker with veggie steamer on top, and i use a george foreman grill (i hate it but it gets the job done). in actuality i worked on a sewing project while checking on the chicken every couple minutes.

RICE AND CHICKEN: DOGGY STYLE

i started with about 1/3 to 1/2 of his normal serving of dog food. mmm...dogfood.

added a scoop or 2 of rice...(calrose, not brown, for those of you wondering. i want to eat all my calrose first before moving onto brown rice)

i only added a couple veggies. one because i dont want to smell broccolli farts, and two, atticus doesn't eat raw carrots. i didn't have much hope for the vegetables.

then came the chicken! mmm...chicken. cooked in a raspberry chipotle sauce. (no, i didn't make that. and technically i was supposed to make the chicken plain, but if i'm going to eat chicken, it better have something on it. i figured if atticus can drink out of the toilet, then he can suffer through some marinade. it looks burned cause it kinda is. i was caught up in my fabrics...)

then i mixed it up with some really hot water. eww. looks gross. smelled kinda gross too.

the first thing he did was pull out the carrot. haha. silly dog. i took a bunch of pictures and he kept looking at me, so i left then. didn't want to give him eating anxiety. came back about 5 minute later...

success!!! even the carrot was gone!!! (i can only assume he also licked the floor clean)

high on my food success, i visited fabric.com's clearance section. 14 yards of fabric for $50, which includes shipping (cause it was free!!!). this lot includes some pickle fabric (woohoo) and fabric bought specifically for my 2 brothers-in-law, which hopefully will lend some inspiration come birthday times.

and so this whole post isn't only about dog food...heres a sneak peak at my next birthday-present-in-the-making. and no, i wont tell you what it is. :)

"the more i get to know people, the more i like my dog." ~frederick the great