For all you dog-nerds out there

I admit that I'm more of a cat person than a dog person, but I still love dogs.  I'd love to work with a therapy dog, or maybe even search & rescue, but ultimately my goal is to one day have enough property and a barn to turn into a sanctuary for pets that might not otherwise be adopted - long-time residents at the Humane Society, special needs, or senior pets.  It'd be fun, for one thing, to have a herd of dogs running around like crazies, but it'd feel good too, to know that I was able to provide a happy home for them.

Along these lines, I LOVE watching dog shows on TV.  I would never buy a purebred dog - I just can't justify spending the money when so many adoptable dogs are out there - but I'm not opposed to responsible breeding.  I like watching the shows to familiarize myself with the breeds, to be able to recognize them when I see them in the world.  It's like how some people can recognize what year/make/model a car is, purely trivia, but also fun to be able to ID mutts too.

Anywhoo.  Long rambling intro to this meme I found at save the pitbull, save the world.

IF YOU HAD TO CHOOSE A DOG FROM EACH CKC/AKC “GROUP,” WHAT WOULD YOU CHOOSE AND WHY?
(excluding your own breeds)

Group 1- Sporting:  Chesapeake Bay Retriever.  My nephew has one that, while I haven't met him, has been extolled as the GREATEST dog by my mom.  And that's a big compliment from my mom!  They don't strike me as being as hyper-dumb-overbred as some of the others either, but I'm no expert.
Group 2- Hound: Irish Wolfhound.  They're just so regal.
Group 3- Working:  A Swissie.  Man, I'd put that dog to WORK in the garden, hauling a cart around for me.  That, and they just have beautiful, mushy faces.  MUSH.
Group 4- Terriers:  This is tough - I hate to admit it but I love terriers.  I think I'd have to say the Norfolk Terrier appeals the most.  Any of them would keep mice out of a barn quite nicely though.
Group 5- Toys:  Havanese.  Totally my 'old lady' dog.
Group 6- Non Sporting:  Shiba Inu.  They can be feisty, but make for a good little guard dog.
Group 7- Herding:  This is also a hard one, because I love having a super-smart dog.  I think I'll say the Belgian Tervuren piques my interest the most though.

What about you, fellow dog-nuts?  (Wait, that doesn't sound right...)  Neuter and spay, everyone!  :-)

[caption id="attachment_292" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The Jake-ster, our English Foxhound/Lab mix"][/caption]

Wordless Wednesday

Tuesday Bluesday

I think I'm going to start wearing gloves at work.  There's no happy medium, temperature-wise, in our office.  The main cube-farm area is always freezing (high ceilings = energy inefficiency), the lunchroom is usually too hot, and the rest is either one extreme or the other.  The exception seems to be the accounting department, where I used to sit, where I used to complain about sitting because everyone forgot I was there, and where I now wish I could sit again because it's so nice and quiet and halfway warm.  Ugh.  The grass is always greener...

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I'm on a new music kick lately and have been loading up on CDs from the library to stock my iTunes.  Free is good, even though one in five discs are scratched beyond hope.  Anybody have any good recommendations?  I'm open to anything except gangsta rap and scream-o death metal.  I do like SOME rap - Jurassic 5 or The Roots, and some old-skool like Hieroglyphics - and SOME metal - Atreyu, Coheed & Cambria - but otherwise I'm not very picky.  Anything from bluegrass to classical, new rock to techno.

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I love wearing long-sleeve tees, but why do the sleeves always shrink just an inch, so they don't quite cover my wrists?  I wash everything in cold water and dry on low heat so I know it's not anything I'm doing... I'll be looking for some trim at the fabric store this week to see if I can lengthen them just a little.

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I had a very depressing dream in between snooze alarms this morning.  (Anybody else have the weirdest ones during those 10-minute intervals?)  I dreamt that B & I were fishing on a river, and when he cast he got a Barn Swallow tangled in his line.  The line was wrapped around the poor bird's neck, and I was crying and telling him to cut the line and let the bird go but he wound up killing the bird.  It was strange in and of itself, but even stranger was how upset I was when I woke up.  It totally ruined my day.

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We cleaned out the veggie beds last weekend, which included harvesting the salad greens and brussels sprouts.  I'm still not entirely sure if I'll work up the nerve to cook the sprouts, but the greens... SIX GALLONS.  Iceberg leaf lettuce, arugula, & mesclun.  I brought two gallon bags worth with me for lunch today to share with my dieting friends.  I didn't bring any cheese out of respect for them, but I'm already regretting not smuggling some for myself.  Salad just isn't salad without a little cheese.  At least I remembered the croutons.

Antiques, part 2

I re-shot the beaded jewelry this weekend, among other things.  We think the necklaces and the collar belonged to my Grandma Jones, and the beaded flowers were Grandma Meredith's.

Antiques, in more than one sense of the word...(kidding Mom!)

My mom visited this week, and rather than packing a suitcase across the country and paying $20 in fees, she shipped her things to me.  I unpacked and hung her clothes in the guest room closet, and found a package among her jammies.  I had asked her to look for a patchwork quilt that I'd started in the eighth grade, made from fabric scraps of dresses she'd made for me when I was little.  She'd found it for me, but she'd also found a few other treasures... some beautiful beaded jewelry that both of my grandmothers had made, and some letters from my dad to his parents from when he was young.  Unfortunately the photos I took the other evening turned out crappy due to artificial lighting and my stubbornness about not digging my tri-pod out of the closet.  So I'll add some artsy-fartsy pics soon when I get over myself.

Mom had never been to Chicago, and neither had my mother-in-law, so we took the train on Friday morning and stayed until Saturday evening.  It rained and was windy (duh...) but we still had a good time.  Of course when I go to Chicago on my own I walk everywhere, and had hoped to do the same on this trip... but I failed to take into account the fact that my mom is... er... not as energetic as she used to be.  I had a hard time slowing my pace down so I didn't leave her in the dust, abandoned somewhere on Michigan Ave., and my plans for walking up into River North had to be changed to sticking to the Loop.  But we still had a great time and enjoyed ourselves at the Art Institute, Giordano's, and Millennium Park.

[caption id="attachment_237" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Mom & I at "The Bean""][/caption]