Things a Woman Should Do

I recently came across the little book 98 Things a Woman Should Do in Her Lifetime:

Here is the first 10  and whether I have done it or plan to:

1. Allow your chewy, salty heart to be marinated in the tender juices of a younger man's obsession. (I think I sorta did this when I was in 8th grade and was "going steady" with Paul Cline, who was in 7th grade.)
2. Run for office, win, and then resign in a grand gesture of moral indigestion. (I really have no interest in running for any office...although maybe as part of a guild or club.... hmm, something to think about.)
3. Ride a train through Europe (better yet, the Orient Express). (So, when I went to Europe in high school we did ride the train from Nice to Paris. However, I think now, as an adult I think riding the Orient Express may make it to my bucket list.)
4. Say grace to the Goddess. (This is a special challenge as it digs at what I believe or don't believe. Can I just say that I say grace to "the powers" and be done with it?)
5. Vote from lust. (I admit, I did this. I won't say who or when, but guilty as charged.)
6. Tell Richard Simmons to just shut up and sit down. (Oh, I've done this one...yeah, it was to the television while I sat and ate cookies, but whatever. I've also done it to Billy Blanks for Tae Boe, Jane Fonda, the Zumba bitches and pretty much every other workout DVD star that I have purchased.)
7. Paint a mural of your imagined past lives. (I haven't done this yet, but I take this as a challenge to represent it in a series of quilts.)
8. Buy a pair of castanets and learn to use them. (I wish I had done this when I still lived at home, just to annoy the parents...now I might do it to freak the dog out.)
9. Sing to a child. (Umm, yeah, nobody wants me to sing to them. What if I read to a child, because I do that all the time when I go and visit my friend's kid and did it for my niece and nephew when they were wee ones.)
10. Sing to a dying parent. (Okay, I can do this...many years from now. Mom and Dad - Look out. Hopefully you all will have gone full on deaf by that point. Do you have any requests? OR, maybe you should be worried if I ever do start singing to you, because that may be when we start planning that trip to Alaska to get you set up on your ice floe....)

I'll share some more of these gems at another date and time. But in the meantime, all you women out there (and men as well) have you done any or all of these? 

Ceramics Class

Last night was my first Ceramics Class. I decided a while back that I wanted to learn how to make pottery and signed up at the community college's continuing education program to learn. The first 7 weeks is all about hand building techniques,

the next 7 will be focused on using the pottery wheel.

Admittedly, I was a little challenged in last night's class. I'm just not very patient or precise, however, I will learn to be or learn to accept my faults. Here is the syllabus for the coming weeks (my Mom will enjoy this):

9/4 - Slab Trays, Plates, and Dishes (I made a couple of small bowl things to put jewelry in and a large pasta bowl/plate/thingy)
9/11 - Glazing previous week's works. Large Sag and Drape Bowls
9/18 - Mugs and Containers/Pots
9/25 - Teapots, Bird Houses, and Sculpture (really looking forward to this one)
10/2 - Sculpture or Student's Choice
10/9 - Student's Choice
10/16 - Glaze only....gotta finish up all those projects that we have been working on

I really enjoyed the class yesterday and the teacher is so young. She teaches art at the High School where we meet (I'll need to get a picture of her classroom as my Mom will have room envy). There are 5 other students in the class. Two younger ladies who are pretty quiet and just work away on their projects. One lady who I've determined is just an oddball as she was matchy-matchy head to toe and then when picking out aprons she HAD to have the green one to continue the matching (we'll see if next week she wears green again) she also used the same doily in every single piece she made, no experimentation, no innovation, no deviation. There is one guy in the class, who I actually spent most of my time talking to (who knows, maybe this is my destiny).

The final lady in the class has taken classes from the instructor before and annoyed me right off the bat. I have no issue with people taking classes from the same instructor, but what annoys me is when they come in and then monopolize the instructor's time by talking about what they learned in the previous session or just visiting as if they are old friends. The other 5 people in the class are complete novices to working with clay and the one 'student' was just not being very considerate and the instructor was not being very instructive...Ah well, I'll just have to get past it.

So, it'll be a couple of weeks before I have anything to show, but looking forward to seeing what I can produce, even if it is crap, it'll be my crap!!

What Next....

First there was the boyfriend pillow:

And the girlfriend lap pillow:

Now there is the Hug Me Jacket:

Just weird....

Leo Update Part 2

So, I may have jumped the gun on reporting that the hound is in good health as we have had some issues this weekend. Here is a quickie timeline:

Friday evening - Leo finally eats a chew bone that he has been carrying around all over the house all week.
Saturday morning - Leo eats his breakfast as normal.
Saturday mid-morning - Leo vomits twice in the studio then refuses to eat anything else the rest of the day. He also spends the rest of the day on the couch or trying to snuggle up with me or on my lap.
Saturday evening - Leo spends the evening in his crate on a comfy pillow without issue as I went to my sister's house for dinner in celebration of my nephew's 15th birthday.
Saturday night - We sleep without issue, aside from some minor whining...on my part.
Sunday morning - Leo nibbles at breakfast, but doesn't eat much. Instead he mopes on either the couch or at the top of the stairs in the studio.
Sunday...all day - Leo has serious gas issues and if I had some doggie beano he would have gotten it shoved down his throat. Instead, I just kept a can of Febreeze handy.
Sunday evening - I went out to dinner with my friend, Jennifer, even though I was worried about Leo as he hadn't eaten anything aside from a couple of nibbles and some water.
Sunday night - Leo FINALLY eats his food.
Monday morning - We are back to not eating anything. However, the gas issues have gone, so fingers are crossed that things are looking up.
Monday afternoon - still without having eaten any food, I'm starting to get a little worried. He also wants nothing more than to be on my lap.
Monday night about 8:15 - Leo throws up again. However, this time, since there is nothing in his stomach it is all bile.
Monday night about 9:00 - I'm starting to get really worried because he hasn't eaten anything all day and barely anything yesterday so I start rummaging through the house trying to think of something that would be easy on his tummy.
Monday night 9:10 - I Google whether dogs can eat eggs. YES! Eggs are a good source of protein for a dog and they can eat the yolks as well as they do not have cholesterol issues. I peel a hard boiled egg and chop it up for him and put it in front of his nose. He sniffs it and tries it then gobbles it down. I go ahead and give him a second one just to get some food in his tummy. This seems to perk him up quite a bit, which is a bad thing since it is also bedtime. Luckily after some coaxing, we curl up and go to sleep.
Tuesday morning - Leo gets his normal kibble back. He sniffs it. Looks at me with the "really? this is what you are giving me?" look and chows down. We then go to daycare where he is practically unable to contain himself as I'm pulling into the parking lot...at least I know he is someplace that makes him happy.....

So, conclusions? Either the bone that he had been carrying around was bad and that put him off food all weekend or he was having anxiety and missing "school". Hopefully, this too shall pass.

Also, before anybody recommends cooked rice in the future, I have tried that and he doesn't go for it. I've even tried it with a little chicken broth on it....nope. So, going forward I will just have to keep some hard boiled eggs in the house, which is okay, because I like 'em as well. 

Leo Update

It has been a couple of weeks since I've posted anything much about my baby.

The last time I took him to the vet, he got a clean bill of health. The x-rays came back clean and there is no longer any infection or pneumonia or anything of that nature so finally after a year of various antibiotics, we are FINALLY drug free.

With this diagnosis, I decided that it was time to get him more socialized with other dogs as well as get some regular exercise. I have been having a dog walker come twice a day while I was at the office to come to the house, let him out of his crate, play with him, feed him, etc. However, he still had tons of energy when I would come home....me not so much, so I would distract him with treats that would occupy his time. He started putting on some weight, a lot of weight....he was becoming a chunk like his mamma. Therefore, between the need for exercise, socializing, and plain old wearing out, I determined that it was time to start Doggie Daycare.

His first day was great. I showed up at the place with all of his paperwork and left him there for about 6 hours. When I went to pick him up, he was thrilled to see me and jumped into the backseat of the car without issue (any other time I have to lift him up into the car as he just doesn't quite have the gumption to get in on his own). We came home and after dinner he passed out. He slept the majority of the next day as well and if he wasn't asleep, he was just pretty relaxed staring off into space. There was none of the constant need for mamma's attention. That sold me on taking him back, which we have continued to do. In fact, he has been enjoying it so much last week that I went ahead and cancelled my dog walker.

The funny thing about the daycare...when we first arrived the folks at the front desk were all excited and called Leo, "Z.." until they started talking to me and I gave them a confused look and told them that his name was Leo. They responded with "Wow, we have another dog that looks just like him, but is a girl...and wow, she has the exact same collar as well, but her's is pink (Leo's is blue)." So, a couple of days later, when I dropped him off, Z (I call her Z because I swear the ladies at the daycare were calling her Zeke, but that is a boy's name, so I'm thinking I must have misheard and don't want to ask) was already there and I went and got some pictures.

She is a little fined boned (he is a total tank) and her ears don't stand up quite as much, but they really do look almost exactly alike. The daycare folks said that her owners got her at the McKinney ASPCA and since Leo was found wandering the neighborhood here in McKinney, I have a strong feeling that they may have come from the same litter, so I say Leo have found his long lost sister. They get along really great at daycare. The handlers say that she is a little more interested in him than he is in her, but isn't that typical of pre-teen boys?

Just for fun, here are some more pictures of my baby....

The bone is behind you....

Really?!? Another show on HGTV? Let's watch the Animal Planet. 

I can almost reach....

What's that?!?

Mom - Are you about done? 

Hanging out with the fabric

Accomplish for Week of September 2

We are going to start small....

To bake: Cupcakes for the Office

To piece: Sedona Stars Quilt

To read: Finish The Minstrel Boy

To finish: Put Binding on Black Tessellation quilt