winners and losers

its difficult to take a picture with all three of us. and even harder to cover up the fact that this was taken in the bathroom...



"are you happy now with all the choices you've made?
are there times in life when you know you should have stayed?
will you compromise and then realize the price is too much to pay?
winners and losers, which one will you be today?"
~ social distortion

6 hours

i think atticus has an internal clock. set to 6 hours. apparently he can go for 12 hours without the need to pee while i'm at work (at least i'm assuming because there are no accidents waiting for me when i get home), but when i'm sleeping he can only go for 6. 6 hours, and he's whining. and if not whining, then barking, or jumping on the bed and landing on me. he has no compassion for my double 12 hour shifts either.

6 hours.

and i understand. he wants to go outside. he wants to watch the world go by while sitting in the grass, not by staring out the window.

so, i begrudgingly (word?) wake up. throw on a sweatshirt and a bandana (for my hair). and we take walks. or we sit outside and watch the world go by.

or we go visit atticus's new best friend & my neighbor, ed....

(the steady supply of treats helps this friendship)

and we visit with attie's second best friend, ed's dog, monecca.

who absolutely adores atticus. reminds me of harold and maude.

what a life, atticus! adoring people, and adoring dogs. can't beat it!!

oh, and uh, dad? speaking of things to beat...

:D

"i've neutered almost all the males in my family." ~ m.segrest

jean

3 ways i could be more like my mother

1. she raised 5 kids. and i think we all turned out okay.

in contrast, i can barely raise a dog.

2. we had homecooked meals every night. or maybe 6 nights out of 7, i can't remember.

in contrast, the only reason atticus gets fed on a regular basis is because i scoop his meals out of a bag. i subsist on ham sandwiches and pickles. oh and hot dogs. and lots of macaroni and cheese.

3. my mom is the best money manager around. 5 kids/7 people on one salary. we never wanted for anything.

in contrast, i am just about the exact opposite. i hate budgeting. when i grocery shop i put what i want in the cart (for the most part) with little regards to price.

my mom is in the middle. isn't she gorgeous?

(p.s. i stole this picture from colley)

3 things my mom has taught me

1. just because its used, doesn't mean its bad.

2. laugh. a lot.

3. be happy over simple things.

(picture of a picture = poor quality!)

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY MOM!

I LOVE YOU!!

~ abraham lincoln

weekend snapshots

so, this is one of atticus's favorite things to do - walk on top of ground cover. sometimes he sinks into it, but more often than not hes looking for critters or food. its a little weird.

"celebrated" cinco de mayo with my friend mike. who, ironically, is mexican. cliche?

also, 3 mixed drinks later, i only blew a .017. i knew they were overpriced...

finally pretty enough for the dog park. we're getting fuel here, but its a good example of what atticus does when he sticks his head out of the sunroof. it requires great balance. which he does not have.

we took our friends mike and walker to the park. i think walker looks like a sphynx when he lays down.

when walker is not being a bully, hes actually quite a love bug. he was loving on atticus today.

i also sent my mom her mothers day package. woohoo! i forgot to take pictures of the one thing though. i'm a little annoyed at myself for that.

another week starts tomorrow. my monday and tuesday (for the rest of you that would be friday and saturday) are both 12 hour days. *big sigh*

onwards and upwards!

"a soul more worthy than our own may languish in darkness while a promise which should have been sacred is allowed to fade from our memory." ~ rev robert a watson

awkward

i've been very caught up on this blog lately: smartprettyandawkward.com

first of all, she puts in a quote for each entry. how can you not love that? and each entry gives ideas how to be smarter, prettier, and less awkward. good stuff.

i'm trying to get out of a personal funk. its difficult. what would help would be me leaving my comfort zone. but they call it a comfort zone for a reason. oi.

heres a picture of sarah's birthday bag i sent last week....she hasn't gotten it yet but she admitted she doesn't check the mail all that often. sarah!!

(the inside is as busy as the outside!)

i decided to center my pictures today. i wonder if it looks any better.

the dryer just turned off. or, as i like to call it, my internet timer.

"i'm very talented at peeing on my feet." ~ m.segrest

pretending

atticus pretends to be so cute...

sniffing in the dandelions...

and getting fluff all over his head...

even with other people....

and other dogs...

but I know he's not always cute....

i have 2 bags holding his torn apart bed to prove it!!!!! (sorry no pictures!)

"sometimes i think i'm just on this earth to humor myself." ~ deryk rhodes

little miss

i had a fairly creative weekend. want to see???

so this is the last tshirt i'm making for the going-away party at work for katie. and this will be her shirt. in case you haven't figured it out, katie is leaving and going back to school to become a nurse. LPN more specifically. i actually really like how this shirt turned out. and in case you're wondering, the letters are all freehand, so they're not necessarily lined up 100%.

the following is the reason i should never expect to get one thing (ie red shirt paint) when i go into joanns. i have to stop by the remnant fabric section. i mean, its almost expected.

it also enabled me to actually save more than i spent. kinda awesome when that happens.

its hard to tell, but there are actually all different types of fabric in there.

starting with the black meshy fabric and moving outward:

the black meshy fabric (for making more fruit/veggie grocery store bags or something else equally fun)

the big black bundle is actually a cotten/linen blend. its awesome. i really like linen. its super classy.

the one on top of that is the only plain old cotton. but i got it because its turquoise and brown and it just looks neat. plus it matches the colors in my bedroom and it might end up on a pillowcase.

the brown and tan houndstooth is a home-dec weight fabric that would make a classy hat or maybe a vest...? hmmm...

the tan stuff on top is vinyl.

the white and the black bundles at the very end are actually silky rayon or cotton and rayon blend.

okay, enough with the fabric, alicia.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

today i had the itch to make more dog biscuits. however because i still have neglected to buy a food processor, i was left with only one type of biscuits to make, that i've made several times already - a garlic cheesy biscuit. BUT....when i went to make them, i realized i forgot to buy yeast. so, i decided i still wanted to make something, so i used my blender as a food processor. it actually worked out really really well.

the following was my mad scientist workspace....

my kitchen is really small. i mean really. my bathroom is actually bigger. and this is literally half my kitchen. have i already mentioned its small? sometimes i have to get a little creative with space.

anyways, i started with baking peanut butter oat dog biscuits. they smelled yummy. they tasted kind of bland. but atticus liked them.

after they were done i figured i'd might as well make another batch because i already had dirtied up half of my appliances and dishes, a little more flour etc wouldn't make a difference.

so i made a batch of peanut butter biscuits. they were supposed to be peanut butter sesame biscuits, but i didn't buy sesame seeds (they were supposed to be sprinkled on top), and i figured attie wouldn't miss them. the second batch was a lot better. mmm...peanut butter...

so the domesticity hasn't ended yet. while the second batch was being cut out, i had a brilliant idea. i just bought atticus another kong, and i needed kong filler. (a kong is basically a fancy fat rubber tube with a tiny hole in one end and a bigger hole on the other - you can fill it with things and then put something on the big hole at the end and it gives your dog something to eat/play with. normally i fill attie's kong with dog food and then seal up the end with cream cheese. he loves cream cheese). anyways...back to my brilliance. i had just bought a bunch of sweet potatoes (or yams....i dont remember which) at safeway, so i decided to make mashed sweet potatoes. instead of milk, i used cream cheese.

mmmm. they were actually extremely yummy. and i was lazy and didn't remove any of the skins. it was still good.

(and i'm sure i'm not the first one to think of mixing up sweet potatoes and cream cheese...dont think all this talk about me being brilliant has gone to my head and caused me to believe this is an original idea. i know its not. i just get excited when i think of things without reading about someone else doing them first.)

they were a big hit with atticus too. (heres a picture of him and his kong...sorry for the blurriness, he was a dog on a mission).

if that wasn't enough, i also made a batch of cinnamon streusel muffins for me for this week. (well, "made" as in added oil, egg, and milk).

ignore that large burned part in the middle. i was sloppy.

so yeah...not a bad days haul.

and where was atticus for most of this baking genius??



outside, with his nose pressed up against the screen door.

"she wants me to be her emotional tampon." ~ c. berg