Tuesday funny

I am not sure why this tickled my funny bone so much today, but it did. Enjoy

Meet Miikka!

On Saturday, an event I have been waiting 8 years for finally happened: We adopted a puppy! I love my cats, don't get me wrong, but they didn't fill the puppy-shaped hole in my heart. Well, pine no longer, o heart!

Miikka (no, that is not a typo) is supposedly a daschund/shepherd mix. Huh. We shall have to just wait and see what he ends up favoring when he gets older - at 8 weeks he is cute, and that is what matters! I had wanted a big dog to go hiking with and so forth, but all the bigger breed dogs I looked at were just too hyper, too big, too intimidating to the cats. Miikka is a good compromise - he's a puppy, but he isn't at all scary. I don't know if he will be up to long hikes, but we will find out eventually. I guess he could always end up in a backpack, much as I have mocked people who do that.
He is named after Calgary Flames goalie Miikka Kiprusoff. We watched him a few years ago in the Stanley Cup playoffs, and liked him and his name... So far, the puppy has proved to be intelligent, and best of all, the cats aren't afraid of him.

Pedestal Rocks

A couple of weekends ago PM (pre-move) we went hiking at Pedestal Rocks and King's Bluff. A big thanks to Greg for the suggestion! It was a great day for hiking - not too hot (unlike this week), not too many people out, no bugs. The trails are up in the Ozarks a bit, so we were up in elevation, which made it nice and cool. The trees were verdant from all the rain we had in May.


The rock formations were fascinating and enchanting. We spent a lot of time stopping to look over the edges of the bluffs, or peering into holes. It was a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon.



Here you can see one of the pedestal rocks that give the trail its name. There were quite a few of these interesting towers, and plenty of bluffs too. I may not like the heat here in Arkansas, but it certainly does have some interesting hiking trails!

Amazing photography website

A professional news service I subscribe to tipped me off to the most amazing photography website: the Shorpy Photo Archive. It is named after the subject of one of the first posted photos. It is a "vintage photography blog featuring thousands of high-definition images from the 1850s to 1950s." Some of the pictures are just fascinating, windows onto a different world.

Closing, and an anniversary

This afternoon is closing, and let me tell you, it cannot come soon enough. I woke up at 3:45 AM this morning, and could not go back to sleep - too keyed up, I guess. At 4:30 I decided it was stupid to just lie there, so I went for a walk. After a 45 minute walk, I was drenched in sweat (that being the most humid time of day, and not exactly cool either), more awake, and realizing that I was screwed for the day, after only 6 hours of sleep. It is now about lunch time, and all I want is my house and my bed.

Which is a shame, because it is also our 8th anniversary! It has sort of gotten lost in the shuffle, although we did specifically plan closing for today. Anyway, here is a picture of us taken a couple of weeks ago on a hike.

Almost there...

Today after work we go to do our final walk-through of our house. Tomorrow is the closing. We are all, cats included, ready to be out of the apartment and into a house. As the day gets closer, the apartment seems to shrink, the walls closing in like the garbage compactor that almost gets Han, Leia and Luke in Star Wars. It is definitely getting more cluttered, as things come out to get packed, don't get packed and we lack the energy to put them away again, for just a couple of days. The cats just want to go outside. This is an interesting time of year for them, with all the bugs to watch and chase, and grass to eat, and they are stuck inside, with two crazy humans.

Tolerance and decency fail

On Saturday, while getting my hair cut, I was witness to the following scene:

Woman to Male Hairstylist: Are you gay?

MHS to W: Yes.

Woman: I have a problem with that.

MHS: Then I think we are done here. Goodbye.

After the woman left, without getting her hair done, the male stylist came over to my stylist and was talking about the incident. As he said, "Hello, I'm a guy in a hair salon!" What an idiot that woman was - the MHS was the most experienced stylist in the place, why should his sexuality be anything to her? She isn't dating him, just getting her hair cut. Ugh.

The food of my weekend

First, the good food of the weekend: Homemade pesto, with basil from our own plants. Oven roasted Japanese eggplant and onions, both from the farmer's market. Served over orecchiette pasta. With a side salad of greens also from the farmer's market. Homemade French bread.

The bad: Jello pudding. This was a major disappointment - the aspartame taste was so strong I couldn't take more than one bite. I had been looking forward to my pudding all afternoon. Sigh. I guess I will just have to learn to make pudding from scratch, next time I have a craving.

Iced Tea: Now, I know how to make iced tea, in many different ways. Yesterday, I made tea with Lipton's and Good Earth Organic Cool Mint Tea. The latter I bought a few weeks ago, just to try, without noticing that the tea wasn't just mint, but also chicory, nutmeg and other flavors. I couldn't stand it by itself, but being the thrifty and waste-averse person that I am, I wanted to give it another chance. Nope. It was so overpowering that you couldn't even tell there was any Lipton's in it. I had to throw out the batch. And the box of tea is now in the staff room at work with a "Drink Please" sign on it. I will stick to just mint in my mint tea from now on.

Whole grain Cheerios: These aren't bad, exactly, but they are too sweet and sticky. Why, why does everything made for the American consumer these days have to be sweet? These Cheerios are not sweetened with high fructose corn syrup, so that is OK, but why do they have to been sweetened at all? Regular Cheerios aren't. The whole grain ones are supposed to be healthier, but they are sweet enough to be dessert, not breakfast. Sigh and Sigh again.

Locked doors and no keys

Oops. So, for the second time in several weeks, I locked myself out of the apartment. The first time was while Benjamin was out of town, and I had to seek refuge at the upstairs neighbor's until the landlord showed up to let me in. This morning I walked out the door, locking it as I went (it is one of those that you can lock without a key, from the inside)...and immediately realized that I didn't have my keys. In my defense, I was being distracted by the cat, and I have a lot on my mind. Luckily, Benjamin was home - still in bed and not happy to be yanked out of the bed by frantic doorbell ringing, but home. Sorry!

Please consider adopting a pet

see more dog and puppy pictures

I have been too busy to get pictures from last weekend's hike off of the camera, so you are getting another great picture from Lol dogs. I WILL post my own pictures soon, I promise!

Run away, run away!

see more Fail Blog

Tattoo me

A few weeks ago, while Benjamin was out of town, I decided that the time had come for me to get a tattoo. I have been thinking about it off and on for years, but always chickened out. Not this time. I found a tattoo place in Conway, Psycho Ink Tattoo, that looked clean and safe. I told people at work so I couldn't back out.

It hurt, a little, but I have felt more pain getting waxed. More like a scrape when you fall down, or a sunburn. Nothing that Tylenol couldn't handle. And apart from itching as it healed, which is normal, it healed painlessly. And I know my mom doesn't want to hear this, but I can totally see why people get multiple tattoos - they are really cool.

Sex with Ducks music video - awesome!

Because it is Friday and I am feeling lazy, you get another video today. Enjoy! Via Amanda, via Neil. Thanks!

Vote for Ginger!

It is too late for the presidential election, but I thought we could all use a laugh today. Vote for Ginger in your next state election!

The month that everything changes

It is the 1st of June. By the end of this month, we should be home-owners! Assuming everything proceeds as it should, we will close on June 17th, and be moving in to the house the following weekend. Whew! And, if I have anything to say about it, we will be getting a puppy the weekend after that.

No, we haven't started packing. We've only been in our apartment for a year (less, actually), and we never fully unpacked, so packing this time shouldn't take too long. And hopefully we will have some help moving this time.

After seeing record numbers of bunnies on my walks last week, I didn't see any over the weekend. I guess I was just walking too late in the morning - they'd all headed home for a morning nap. Almost came home from the grocery store with a kitten though. Some stupid person had a litter in a cardboard box, and was using their children to try to get people to take them. I hate that! There ought to be a law against giving animals away. I wanted to take a kitten just to rescue it from their clutches, but I couldn't. Besides, there is no such thing as a free kitten.